A HISTORY OF ENGLAND
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
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OUR GREAT CITY; OR, LONDON. THE
HEART OF THE EMPIRE - - - - 1 9
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THE COMING OF THE KILOGRAM 1 6
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from gd. to is. 8d.).
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THIS WORLD OF OURS - - 2 6
IN A CONNING TOWER - 0 6
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A LIST OF THE VARIOUS COUNTRIES, ISLANDS, TERRITORIES^ V
AND POSSESSIONS WHICH MAKE UP THE " BRITISH EMPIRE " \?/A/l — *&
AND IN WHICH THE " UNION JACK " FLIES :—
The figures given in this list are those of the last available census, but the
population in many parts of the Empire has largely increased since that cinie.
THE BRITISH ISLANDS.
Population.
England and Wales . . . 32,527,843
Scotland 4,472,103
Ireland ..... 4,458,775
The Isle of Man . . . 54,752"
The Cnanuel Islands . . 95,ol8
Great Countries chiefly inhabited
by men of British race —
NORTH AMERICA.
Canada . . ' . . . 5,371,315
Newfoundland. . . . 217,037
AUSTRALASIA.
New South Wales . . 1,359,133
Victoria . . . 1,201,341
Queensland . . . 503,26(3
South Australia . . 362,604
Western Australia . . 184,124
Tasmania 172,475
New Zealand .... 772,719
Places colonised by menof British
race, but in which those of
British descent are outnum-
bered by natives or those of
some other race —
SOUTH AFRICA.
Cape Colony .... 2,405,552
Natal . . . .' . 1,039,787
Bechuaualand . . . 119,772
Southern Rhodesia . . *579,000
Waltisch Bay . . . 1,015
The Transvaal . . . 1,268,716
Tne Orange River Colony 385,045
NOTB.— In the South African Colonies there
is a large number of persons of Dutch
descent as well as the natives.
WEST AFRICA.
Gambia 13,456
Gold Coast .... 1,486,433
Sierra Leone .... 76,655
Lagos '1,500,000
ASIA.
Straits Settlements . . . 672,249
SOUTH AMERICA.
British Guiana .... 278,328
British Honduras . . . 38,980
Islands forming part of the
Empire and colonised by men,
of British race, but in tvhicJi,
there is still a large number
of natives or persons not of
British race—
Bahamas (West Indies) .
Barbados (North Atlantic) .
Ceylon (Indian Ocean) .
Fiji Islands (Pacinc Ocean) .
Jamaica, Turk's, and Caicos
Islands (West Indies)
Labuan (China Seas)
Leeward Islands (West Indies)
Mauritius (Indian Ocean)
New Guinea (East Indies)
Trinidad (West Indies) .
Windward Islands (West In-
dies;, including : —
Grenada ....
St. Lucia ....
St. Vincent
Tobago ....
53,735
"198,000
3,578,333
120,124
644,541
•8,400
127,530
378,195
*350,OUO
255, 14S
66,700
51,880
41,000
18,700
Places and Islands kept partly
for commercial purposes, but
chiefly as military ports to
protect the Empire —
Gibraltar .
Malta
Cyprus
MEDITERRANEAN.
26,830
197,070
237,000
RED SEA.
CHINA SEAS.
Hong Kong .... 283,900
NORTH ATLANTIC.
Bermuda 17,535
SOUTH ATLANTIC.
Ascension *450
St. Helena .... 3,342
Possessions under the Governor-
General of JLndia, peopled by a
number of niutive races, under
the Government of a few Eng-
lishmen.
India . ") ,
Bur man .../-'
Countries under the protection
of the Jiritish Empire—
Zanzibar and the parts of Africa striped
red m the map.
* An asterisk before the figures denotes that the population is estimated.
THE CROSS OF "ST. GEORGE"
FOR ENGLAND.
THE CROSS OF "ST. ANDREW
FOR SCOTLAND.
THE CROSS OF "ST. PATRICK'
FOR IRELAND.
THE " UNION JACK," THE FLAG OF OUR COUNTRY.
The UNION JACK is made up of the three Crosses of ENGLAND,
SCOTLAND, and IRELAND, and is thus truly the Flag of the UNION.
In the early history of England the Red Cross of St George by itself
was the Flag of England. When the Crowns of England and Scotland
were united at the accession of James the VI. of Scotland to the
throne of England, under the title of James the 1st, King of Great
Britain and Ireland, the White Cross (or Saltire) of St. Andrew was
added to the Cross of St. George; but it was not until the Act of
Union between England and Scotland in 1707 that the flag containing
the Crosses of England and Scotland became by law the National
Flag. In 1801, after the Union with Ireland, the Red Cross of St.
Patrick was added, and thus the UNION JACK was made up.
fir
fc (LIBRARY)
kcP
HISTORY OF ENGLAND
FROM THE LANDING OF JULIUS CAESAR
TO THE PRESENT DAY
BY
THE RIGHT HON. H. O. ARNOLD-FORSTER
Author of
'THE CITIZEN READER," " THE LAWS OF EVERY-DAY LIFE," "THIS WORLD OF OURS,
"THINGS NEW AND OLD," " IN A CONNING TOWER," ETC.
WITH ABOUT 230 ILLUSTRATIONS
CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED
LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK & MELBOURNE. MCMVII
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WILLIAM EDWARD ARNOLD-FORSTER,
FOR WHOSE BENEFIT AND INSTRUCTION
IT WAS ORIGINALLY DESIGNED,
AND TO WHOSE FRIENDLY CRITICISM OF ITS PROOF-SHEETS
THE AUTHOR HAS FREQUENTLY BEEN INDEBTED,
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED BY HIS
AFFECTIONATE FATHER.
PREFACE.
THERE is, and it may be hoped there will always be, a demand
for a history of England. It would be idle to pretend that
the supply is not large and in many respects adequate. At
the same time there are undoubtedly many thousands of persons
who have neither the means to purchase, nor the leisure to
peruse, the great standard works with which the genius and
industry of modern historians have happily endowed us, and
who yet wish to know something of their country's past, and to
understand how, from very small beginnings, our nation has
achieved its present great position among the peoples of the
earth.
Those who are acquainted with the teaching of history in many
of our public and private schools must be aware that the subject
often fails to interest, and that some of the historical summaries
now in use, though accurate and admirable in many respects, are
read as a task and not as a pleasure. In many homes also there is
undoubtedly a demand for a History of England of manageable
size at a reasonable cost, and written in such a manner as to attract
and not to repel young readers. And while it is believed that
the present volume may to some extent meet the requirements
of schools and of young readers at their homes, it is believed
that it may also be found useful to a still larger circle of readers.
A small book, written in simple language, sufficiently full
to serve for reference, and at the same time sufficiently
interesting to be read as well as to be consulted, a book
vi PREFACE.
within the reach of all in matter of price, and rendered
attractive by good illustrations copied from first-rate originals,
is what very many English men and women, both young and old,
undoubtedly require. To supply such a book has been the sole
aim of the author. How far success has attended his efforts, the
fortunes of this volume, when launched on its career, will show.
A few words may be permitted with regard to the character
of the book itself. In adding yet one more volume to the
great library of English historical literature, some explanation,
or perhaps indeed some apology, is due from the author. To
apply the term "A History of England" to a single small
volume may seen presumptuous. The record of our national
life is so full, so long, so crowded with incident, so elaborate,
that even great histories, written in many volumes by
master hands, can only illustrate and cannot exhaust the theme
to which they are devoted. The author of the present work
is very conscious of the fact, and yet is reluctant to introduce
his book by any such repellent title as " A Summary," or " An
Outline of English History." Such titles seem on the face of
them to imply that the element of interest and the romance
inseparable from the life and doings of individuals are excluded,
and that an amplified chronological table has been made to
do duty for a history. But to read English history and fail to
realise that it is replete with interest, sparkling with episode,
and full of dramatic incident, is to miss all the pleasure and
most of the instruction which its study, if properly pursued,
can give.
An attempt has therefore been made in the present volume
to clothe the skeleton of chronological fact with the flesh
and blood which are essential parts of the animated and living
figure. In so small a book such an object can only be achieved
by sacrificing very much that might well be included in a larger
PREFACE. vii
\
work. It has been necessary to select certain episodes and certain
periods for detailed description, while other episodes and other
periods receive but scant mention or are relegated to the " Sum.
maries " which will be found at the heads of chapters. But
throughout, a consistent endeavour has been made to maintain
the thread of interest in the story, and the episodes selected
for detailed description are, in the opinion of the author, those
which most fittingly express the cardinal fact or the dominating
idea of the time in which they occur. If an apparently undue
number of pages be devoted to the story of Henry II. and
Becket, it is because the story itself is an illustration of the
great struggle between the royal and the ecclesiastical power
which marked the time. The story of Magna Charta occupies
more space than the record of other periods crowded with in-
cident ; but the Charter, from the date of its signature down
to the present day, is a dominating fact in the whole history
of England. The Reformation and the great intellectual re-
vival by which it was preceded and accompanied are treated
at some length ; and in this and in other instances pains have
been taken to give life to the story and to make it interesting
to the reader as well as serviceable to those whose studies are,
unfortunately for himself, undertaken only with the view of
qualifying for an examination.
Of the structure of the book and of its internal history, a
word remains to be said. The present volume is based upon
a series of books by the author, which have already appeared
under the title of " Things New and Old." The earlier part
of the series has been almost entirely rewritten. The latter
part has been extended and modified in many important
particulars, so as to adapt it to general readers, and to make it
uniform in style and treatment with the remainder of the
volume.
via PREFACE.
The series on which the present volume is based has
undergone the ordeal of public criticism, and the sale of over
100,000 copies has borne testimony to the fact that the work
in its earlier shape met the requirements of a considerable
number of readers. The author hopes that the present volume
will reach even a wider circle, and may be the means of in-
ducing many English men and women to pursue the study of
their national history — a study which will amply repay them,
and in which even the most diligent student will, never ex-
haust the available material.
H. O. A F.
A.D. MDCCCXCVII.
Ann. Re. LX.
CONTENTS.
PART ONE.
FROM THE ROMAN TO THE NORMAN.
Note
55 B.C. — A.D. I066.
I. The Romans in Britain. 55 B.C. — A.D. 436 .
II. The Coming of the Saxons. 436 — 449 ...
III. The Saxon Conquest. 449 — 597
IV. How the Saxons became English and the English became
Christians. 597 — 837 ........
V. The Northmen. 837—871
VI. The Reign of King Alfred. 871 — 901
VII. The English Kings from Edward "the Elder" to Edward "the
Martyr." 901 — 979
VIII. The Danish Conquest. 979 — 1016
IX. The Danish Kings and Edward the Confessor. 1016 — 10 6 .
X. The Norman Conquerors. 1066
XI. The Story of the English
XII. The Historians and Writers of England before the Norman Conquest
PART TWO.
FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO THE ACCESSION OF EDWARD
1066 — 1272.
Note
XIII. William I. — The Norman Conquest. 1066 — 1087 .
XIV. Feudalism
XV. William II. " The Red King. " 1087—1100
XVI. Henry I. noo — 1135
XVII. Stephen. 1135—1154
XVIII. Henry 11. 1154-1189
XIX. Richard Coeur-de-Lion. 1189 — 1199 •
XX. John — The History of the Charters. 1199 — 1216 .
XXI. What the Great Charter did for Englishmen .
XXII. Henry III.— The Parliament of England. I2i6--i272 .
PART THREE.
ENGLAND UNDER ENGLISH KINGS. 1272—1485.
Note
XXIII. Edward I. and " The Breaking of Wales." 1272—1307
XXIV. Scotland
XXV. Edward II.—" The Making of Scotland." 1307—1327 .
XXVI. Edward III.— "The Ruin of France." 1327—1^77
XXVII. Richard II. 1377—1399 .
XXVIII. Henry IV. 1399—1413 . . . ..'.'.".
XXIX. Henry V. 1413 — 1422 .......
XXX. Henry VI. — " The Freeing of France." 1422—1445
XXXI. York and Lancaster. 1445 — 1455 .
XXXII. Edward IV. 1455—1483 ....
XXXIII. The Invention of Printing
XXXIV. Edward V. and Richard III. 1483—1485
PAGE
I
2
24
30
39
52
57
65
78
83
90
94
101
105
106
114
117
123
129
131
147
'53
162
176
187
188
J94
20 c
208
218
225
231
237
?45
2^0
254
259
CONTENTS.
PAGE
267
268
288
299
3°9
3X5
326
333
356
369
377
382
394
398
407
419
PART FOUR.
THE TUDORS. 1485—1603.
CHAP: Note
XXXV. Henry VII. 1485-1509
XXXVI. Henry VIII. and England at War. 1509—1547
XXXVII. The Great Cardinal and the King's Divorce .
XXXVIII. The Protestant Reformation . ' .
XXXIX. Henry as Head of the Church
XL. Edward VI. 1547 — 1553 .......
XL1. What the Reformation Meant . . . . ' .
XLII. Mary. 1553—1558
XLIII. Elizabeth— The Protestant Queen. 1558—1603
XL1V. The Sorrowful History of Mary, Queen of Scots
XLV. Protestants and Roman Catholics Abroad and at Home.
XLVI. The Story of the Great Armada ....
XLVII. The Last Years of the Great Queen.
XLVII I. A New World and a New Age
XLIX. Literature and Art in the Tudor Period . . . .
L. Parliament— Dress— Dwellings— Schools— The Calendar.
PART FIVE.
THE STUARTS. 1603 — 1714.
Note ............ 429
LI. James Stuart, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland. 1603-1625 430
LI I. Charles I. — How the King angered the Parliament. 1625 — 1630 . 453
LIU. The King defies Parliament. 1630 — 1642 ..... 468
LIV. How Parliament punished the King. 1642 — 1649 .... 480
LV. The Commonwealth of England. 1649—1660 . . 4*94
LVI. Charles II. 1660-1685 516
LVII. James II. and the End of Absolute Monarchy in England. 1685 — 1688 530
LVI1I. William III. and Mary— The Revolution and Limited Monard y.
1689 — 1702 .......... 541
LIX. Anne — The Last of the Stuarts. 1702 — 1714 . . . . 557
LX. Constitutional History of the Stuart Period . . . 573
LXI. Literature in the Stuart Period. .... . . 578
LXII. Writers of the Later Stuart Period .... . . 589
LXIII. Science, Art, and Daily Life under the Stuarts. . . . 594
PART SIX.
FROM THE ACCESSION OF THE HOUSE OF HANOVER TO THE PRESENT
TIME. 1714 — 1901.
Note , 601
LXIV. George I. 1714 — 1727 . . .... 601
LXV. George II. 1727—1760 ........ 621
LXVI. Clive, Wolfe, and Washington 642
LXVII. George III. 1760-1820 657
LXVIII. The Act of Union with Ireland 672
LXIX. '1 he French Revolution 678
LXX. The Great War with France. Part 1 684
LXXI. The Great War with France. Part II 701
LXXII. George IV. and William IV.— The Great Peace. 1820—1837 719
LXXIII. The Days of Queen Victoria. 1837—1852 .... 727
LXX IV. The End of the Great Peace and the Story of our own Times
1852—1901 738
LXXV. The Conquests of Peace 759
LXXVI. Steps on the Path of Freedom 765
LXXVII, Literature and Art since 1714 767
INDEX 805
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
The " Union Jack " Frontispiece
Julius Caesar ............. 3
Dover Cliffs: " The White Walls of England " 6
A " Crown," or Five-shilling Piece 7
Roman Soldiers (from Trajan's Column) . 7
A Briton and his Boat 9
Stonehenge as it is 10
Stonehenge as it was 1 1
The Mistletoe Bough 12
Caractacus before the Emperor Claudius % . .15
The Roman Gateway at Lincoln .18
A Roman Pavement 19
The Shortest Distance between two Points is a Straight Line .... 20
The Old Roman Road across Salisbury Plain 21
Rochester Castle and the Medway 29
Gregory " the Great " . . 41
Holy Island 47
The Interior of Durham Cathedral, showing the Norman Pillars .... 48
A " Northman" 51
The " Keels " of the Northmen 54
A Harp of the Ninth Century 58
The "White Horse," near Uffington 61
An Anglo-Saxon Ship ............ 63
Romsey Abbey .............. 73
One of our English Wild Beasts— The Badger 74
St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street, London 75
One of our English Wild Beasts— The Weasel 76
The Murder of King Edward 77
The Death of Alphege 81
' ' Rose " Window in Westminster Abbey . . . . . . . .88
Westminster Abbey 89
Harold taken Prisoner on the Norman Coast 91
Norman and Saxon Arms 108
Norman Soldiers no
A Vassal doing Homage to his Lord 115
Stone marking the Spot where William Rufus was Killed , . . . .119
Ancient Buttresses of Westminster Hall, now covered up 120
Westminster Hall 121
Plant a Genista, a Sprig of " Broom " ........ . 125
Harlech Castle 130
Canterbury Cathedral ............ 133
The Cathedral of Sens 134
xii LIST OF ILLUSTRA TIOXS.
Bishop and Barons in the Time of the Normans ...... 136
A Bishop's Court in Nonnan Times . . . . , . . . .140
King Henry's Penance .... « ,..'.'. 144
King Richard landing in Palestine .... . 151
Runnymede ..... 160
The Judges entering an Assize Town . . ... . 167
Bailiffs breaking "Magna Charta" .... .... 173
Queen Elizabeth in her " Ruff " 175
The Barons asking Henry III. to keep his Promises 179
Carnarvon Castle , 195
The Coronation Chair and " The Stone of Destiny " ... . 199
Stirling Castle at the Present Day 205
Bannockburn : Bruce reviewing his Troops before the Battle .... 207
English Archer armed with the " Long Bow " . . . . . . . 212
Cannon of the Fifteenth Century 214
Gunpowder puts the Weak and the Strong on Equal Terms .... 215
Richard II. (from the Portrait in Westminster Abbey) ..... 218
Henry IV 227
Joan of Arc (from the Statue in Paris) ... 240
Trial of Joan of Arc . . . . . . . , . . . 241
A Rose from the Decorations of the Houses of Parliament 248
The Quarrel in the Temple Gardens 249
Caxton presenting his Book to Edward IV. (from the MS. in the Library of
Lambeth Palace) ............ 255
Lines from a Book printed by Caxton 256
" Lower Case," or Small Letters — " Upper Case," or Capitals . . . . 257
The Crown in the Hawthorn Bush : a Tudor Emblem. ..... 262
Richard III. at the Battle of Bosworth 263
A York and Lancaster Rose, Red and White on the same Stalk .... 264
Henry VII 269
The Tower of London ............. 273
Sword presented by Henry VII. to the Loyal City of Exeter .... 276
Henry's Departure from the Earl of Oxford's Castle at Hedingham . . . 278
A "Rose Noble "of Henry VII 280
A Yeoman of the Guard 282
Henry VII. 's Chapel, Westminster Abbey 287
Henry VIII. (from the Painting by Holbein, in the Possession of the Earl of
Warwick) . « 29 1
Catharine of Aragon , 294
Twisel B idge ... 296
Cardinal Wolsey (from the Painting by Holbein) . . . . . . . 300
The Quadrangle of Christ Church College, Oxford ...... 301
Clement VII. (from the Painting by Titian) . 304
History on a Penny •- 3°5
Thomas Cromwell (from the Painting by Holbein) , . 307
Martin Luther (from the Picture by L. Cranach) ... ... 310
The Tune of ' ' Luther's Hymn " 3 "
Sir Thomas More (after the Picture by Holbein) . .... 3'4
Anne of Ceves (from the Portrait by Holbein) ... ... 321
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xiii
PAGE
Sea Fight between Lord Howard and Sir Andrew Barton 325
Edward VI. (from the Portrait by Holbein) 328
The Block, the Headsman's Axe and Mask 330
Lady Jane Grey 338
Lady Jane Grey on her Way to the Scaffold 341
Queen Mary (from a Painting by Lucas D'Heere, in the Possession of the Society
of Antiquaries) 343
A Shilling of Philip and Mary • • 345
Philip II -346
The Martyrs' Memorial, Oxford . -349
Archbishop Cranmer 352
The Market Place, Calais • • 355
Queen Elizabeth's Signature . 360
Lord Burleigh (from a Painting by Mark Gerard) - . 362
Queen Elizabeth and her Courtiers . 367
Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots . . 37°
John Knox '-.-'. . . - . . 371
Edinburgh at the Present Day ........ -373
Henry IV. of France and Navarre (from a Painting by Rubens) . . . . 378
Queen Elizabeth (from Portrait by Zucchero, in possession of Marquis of Salisbury) 385
On the Watch : Lighting the Beacon 388
The Armada coming up the Channel (from an Old Print) 389
" On the Rocks of Gal way " 393
The Known World before the Tudor Period . / 397
The Known World at the Close of the Tudor Period . . 399
Statue of Drake on Plymouth Hoe . 403
Some " Things New and Old " 405
Some Famous Books of Tudor Times 408
Anne Hathaway 's Cottage . . . . , . , . . . .411
Portrait of Raphael, by Himself 417
Portion of the Tomb of Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, by Michael Angelo, in the
Medicis Chapel, Florence 418
A "Pointed" Window. 423
A " Perpendicular " Window 423
King's College, Cambridge 425
James I. (from the Mezzotint by J. Smith, after Van Dyck) 434
Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury (from the Portrait by Zucchero) . . . 437
The Arrest of Guy Fawkes 443
Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam (from the Portrait by Van Somer) ... . 445
Sir Walter Raleigh (from the Portrait by Zucchero) 447
Arms of the University of Oxford 450
Henrietta Maria 455
Charles I. (from the Mezzotint by J. Smith, after Van Dyck) . . . . 456
George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham (after the Portrait by Van Dyck) . . 459
Archbishop Laud ............. 463
The "Speaker " held down in the Chair ........ 467
Puritans and Cavaliers ............ 469
Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford (from the Portrait by Van Dyck) . -475
King Charles and Speaker Lenthall . . 479
xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Prince Rupert (from the Portrait by Van Dyck) 481
Cavalier Soldiers 482
John Hampden 485
Statue of Falkland in the Houses of Parliament 486
Roundhead Soldiers 488
Siege-piece (Value IDS.) issued during the Siege of Colchester .... 490
Siege-piece issued during the Siege of Newark • . . 490
The Banqueting Hall, Whitehall 495
Great Seal of the Commonwealth of England (Obverse) 496
Great Seal of the Commonwealth of England (Reverse) 497
General Monk 502
" General-at-Sea" Blake (from the Painting in Greenwich Hospital) . . . 504
Naval Flag of the Commonwealth (photographed from the Original at Chatham
Dockyard) 505
Oliver Cromwell 507
General Monk entering London . . . . . . . . . • 5*5
Charles II. (from the Mezzotint by G. R. Williams, after Sir Godfrey Kneller) . 518
The Landing of Charles II. at Dover 519
Ships of the Time of Charles II 521
Half-crown of Charles II 522
The Duke of Monmouth 528
James II. (after the Painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller) 531
Monmouth before King James 534
The Seven Bishops entering the Tower 539
William III 543
The Birmingham Tower and St. Patrick's Chapel, Dublin Castle. . . . 547
The English Ships breaking the Boom at Derry . . . . . . . . 549
John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee (from the Painting by Sir Peter
Lely) 551
Queen Mary 555
Queen Anne (from the Mezzotint by J. Smith, after Sir Godfrey Kneller) . . 559
John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough (from the Mezzotint by J. Smith, after Sir
Godfrey Kneller) 561
Charge of Marlborough's Horse at the Battle of Blenheim 563
The Rock of Gibraltar from Algeciras 564
Great Seal of Queen Anne (Obverse) 569
Great Seal of Queen Anne (Reverse) 571
John Milton (from the Miniature by Samuel Cooper) 579
John Bunyan. ............. 583
A Page from an Early Newspaper 593
Sir Isaac Newton i 595
St. Paul's Cathedral, designed by Sir Christopher Wren 597
George 1 605
Louis XIV. of France 607
James Edward Stuart, " The Old Pretender " 609
Buying and selling South Sea Shares (from the Painting by E. M. Ward, R.A.,
in the National Gallery) 619
George II 623
Sir Robert Walpole 624
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xv
PAGE
The House of Commons in 1742 .......... 627
Charles Edward Stuart, " The Young Pretender " ...... 632
Prince Charlie's Vanguard at Manchester ........ 636
Robert, Lord Clive (after the Portrait by Gainsborough) ..... 646
Major Washington planting the Union Jack on Fort Duquesne .... 651
Major-General Wolfe (from a Painting by F. Turin) ...... 653
William Pitt, Lord Chatham (from a Painting by R. Brompton) .... 655
George III. in his Youth 660
Quebec, from the St. Lawrence 663
Edmund Burke . 664
Throwing the Tea overboard in Boston Harbour 665
Lord North 666
William Pitt (after the Portrait by Hoppner) .674
Henry Grattan (after the Painting by J. Ramsay) 676
The Bastille, Paris • . . .679
Louis XVI. (after a Painting by Boze, 1785) 681
Napoleon Buonaparte, First Consul (from a Drawing by L. David) . . . 685
Mutineers threatening their Officers 689
Three-deckers going into Action 691
Admiral Lord Nelson (from the Painting by Sir William Beechey, R.A.) . . 692
Nelson coming on Deck before the Battle of Trafalgar 695
The Death of Nelson in the Cockpit of the Victory (from the Picture by
A. W. Devis) . . . . * 697
Charles James Fox (after the Portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds) .... 699
The Treaty of Tilsit 703
Cape Town 705
Sir John Moore 707
The Retreat from Moscow (from the Picture by Adolphe Yvon) .... 713
Monument at Oxford to Commemorate the Peace of 1814 714
The Duke of Wellington (from the Portrait by Sir William Beechey, R.A.) . . 715
Field-Marshal Blucher (from the Portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence). . . 716
George IV 722
William IV . . . i . . . . . .724
Lord Palmerston ............. 725
Queen Victoria (from the Painting by W. C. Ross, A. R.A.) 730
Albert, Prince Consort (from the Painting by W. C. Ross, A. R.A.) . . . 731
The Queen's First Council (after the Picture by Sir David Wilkie) . . .732
Sir Robert Peel (from the Portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence) .... 734
The Wellington Memorial in St. Paul's Cathedral 739
In the Trenches before Sebastopol 741
The Meeting of Sir Colin Campbell and Sir Henry Havelock at Lucknow (from
the Picture by Thomas J. Barker) 747
Some of the first Volunteers in 1860 749
Queen Victoria in her 8oth year .......... 755
Statue of William Edward Forster in Front of the London School Board . . 756
General Gordon (from a Photograph of the Statue by Hamo Thornycroft, R.A.,
in Trafalgar Square) 757
King Edward VII. and Queen Alexandra 758
Captain Cook (from the Portrait by Dance in the Gallery of Greenwich Hospital) 769
xvi LIST or ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
The Comet . 777
The "Rocket" 778
A Great Northern Engine 778
George Stephenson 78o
Dr. Samuel Johnson (after the Portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds) . . . 788
William Hogarth (from the Print by Him?elf) 7go
Statue of Goldsmith, Dublin .792
Burke's Statue, Dublin 7g2
Lord Byron, 1814 (from the Portrait by T.Phillips, R. A.) 796
Robert Burns (from the Portrait by Alexander Nasmyth in the Nat'onal Gallery,
Edinburgh) 798
Sir Walter Scott (after the Portrait by Sir Henry Raeburn) 799
MAPS:—
The Empire of the Romans 3
Map of England showing the Division between the Saxons and the Britons . 33
The English Kingdoms - . .37
The Principal Provinces of France 127
Map showing the British Districts in England 192
The English Dominions in France in the Time of Henry V. .... 234
Map showing Brittany and the Northern and Western Coasts of France . . 285
Ireland, showing the Province of Ulster 452
Map of Central Europe at the Close of the Seven Years' War , 639
India 645
Map of Eastern Canada and the Gulf of St. Lawrence 652
The United States in 1783 . 668
North America 669
GENEALOGICAL TABLES : —
From William I. to Henry VII. . . . . . . . . . .266
Family of Henry VII 331
Descent of the Crown from Henry VII. to James 1 432
Descent of the Crown from James I. to King Edward VII. .... 449
Descent of the Crown from Henry VII. to King Edward VII. (continued from
p. 266) 803
SCROLL, divided into Centuries, showing Leading Events in each Hundred Years
from 55 B.C. to A. D. 1901 Facing p. 104
LIST OF THE SOVEREIGNS OF ENGLAND : —
The Chief Kings of the Heptarchy ; and the Sovereigns from Egbert to King
Edward VII. 804
A
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
PART OXE.
FROM THE ROMAN TO THE NORMAN.
55 B.C.-A.D. 1066.
NOTE.
The first part of this book contains a short account of the
early history of our country. As will be seen from the
dates given above, it covers a great period of time —
more than eleven centuries. It is very important to bear
this fact in mind. In this book, and indeed in every
History of England great or small, the space which is
given up to describing the events which took place
between the landing of the Normans in 1066 and our
own time is much larger than that which is given up
to a description of the eleven centuries which went before.
It is natural that this should be so, because the later we
come down in history the more numerous are the records
from which we learn what took place. We have much
greater knowledge of what occurred in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth than we have of what took place in the
time of Egbert or Alfred. But it must not be supposed
that because we have comparatively little knowledge of
what took place in England a thousand or fifteen hun-
dred years ago, the events of those days are without
importance, or fail to have their effect in forming the
character of the English people as they now are. If we
look at the chart which appears at page 104 we shall see
at a glance what is the true proportion in the two periods
of English history of which we have been speaking, and
we shall learn to remember that eleven centuries passed
between the day when Julius C&sar landed at Deal, and
2 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
that on which William the Conqueror landed at Hastings;
while, from the time of the Norman landing to the days
of King Edward VII. is less than nine centuries.
The great points on which we should fix our . attention in
reading the history of this period may be shortly put
thus : —
THE ROMAN CONQUEST, which throws the first light upon
our island, and which gives us some knowledge of the
Britons who then inhabited it.
THE GREAT ANGLO-SAXON, OR ENGLISH INVASION,
which laid the foundation of our people and of our
language.
THE CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY.
THE STRUGGLE WITH THE DANES, which helped to unite
the English people under one head.
THE NORMAN CONQUEST, which gave the nation discipliney
strength, and law.
CHAPTER I.
THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN.
55 B.C.-A.D. 436.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED DURING THE TIME OF THE
ROMAN OCCUPATION OF BRITAIN.
Constantine the Great, b. 274, d. 337.
Cassivelaunus.
CaractaCUS taken prisoner, 51.
Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni, d. 62.
SuetpniUS, a Roman general.
Virgil, the great Roman poet, b. 70 B.C.,
d. 19 B.C.
Caius Cornelius Tacitus, the Roman
writer, b. 55, d. about 130.
St. Alban, Martyr, d. 304.
AlailC, King of the Goths.
JullUS Caesar, b. 100 B.C., assassinated 44 B.C.
Pompey the Great, b. 106 B.C., d. 48 B.C.
Mark Antony, b. 83 B.C., d. 30 B.C.
Augustus Csesar, first Roman Emperor,
b. 63 B.C., d. A.D. 14.
JESUS CHRIST.
Tiberius Csesar, Emperor, b. 42 B.C., d.
A.D. 37.
TitUS? Emperor, b. A.D. 40, d. 81.
Hadrian, Emperor, b. A.D. 76, d. 138.
SeveruS, Emperor, b. 146, d. 211.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE ROMAN OCCUPATION OF
BRITAIN.
. Invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar.
. Second Invasion of Britain by
Caesar.
ANNUS DOMINI. The Birth of CHRIST.
SSB.C
54 B.C.
. .
A.D. 43 Claudius sends an army to Britain.
47 Vespasian conquers Britain.
51 Caractacus taken prisoner.
62 Death of Boadicea.
70 Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus.
121 Hadrian's wall built.
211 Wall of Severus built.
304 Death of St. Alban.
316 Constantine. first Christian Emperor.
402 to 436 Withdrawal of the Romans from
Britain.
410 Alaric besieges and takes the City of
Rome.
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Britannia/'
"BRITAIN, the best of islands, is situated in the Western Ocean, between
France and Ireland . . . it produces everything that is useful to man.
with a plenty that neuer fails." — Geoffrey of Monmouth's Chronicle (1140).
FIFTY-FIVE years before the birth of Christ, Julius Caesar, at the head
of a Roman army, landed on the shores of England. It is on that day
that the history
of England be-
gins.
Long before
the coming of
Caesar, men and
women had
lived and died,
and worked and
fought, in the
land which we
now call Eng-
land. But of
their sayings
and doings we
have no record ;
no historian
has told us of
their fortunes,
and for all that
we know of
them, they
might never
have existed.
Suddenly a great ray of light was thrown upon what before was
darkness. Not only did Julius Caesar land upon the shores of our
country, but he wrote down in words which may be read at this day
the story of the strange new people he had found, and a description of
the far-off country in which they lived. And thus it is true to say that
the History of England begins with the landing of Julius Caesar, fifty-
five years before the birth of Christ.
JULIUS C^SAR.
*' BRITANNIA* 5
It is now nearly two thousand years since the landing took place.
At that time there was but one great Empire in the world, and one
great people who ruled half Europe and vast possessions in Africa.
This was the great Roman people, whose chief city was Rome, in
Italy, and whose language was the Latin tongue in which Julius
Caesar wrote.
News had already come to the Romans that there existed, far away
in the Northern seas, an island, or a number of islands, which had
never been conquered by the Roman arms. Traders from the
Mediterranean sailing up the coast of Spain, and of that country
which we now know as France, -but which was then called Gallia, or
Gaul, had found land far out in the Atlantic, and landing, had dis-
covered rich deposits of tin which they had worked and brought back
to Italy. But the stories of adventurous sailors and merchants were
soon to be replaced by a much closer acquaintance. Towards the
middle of the last century before Christ, a great man, the greatest
of all the Romans, had been appointed to the command of the
armies in the Roman province of Gaul.1
This great man was Julius Caesar. Not content with defending the
Roman provinces, he carried war into the whole country of the Gauls.
Step by step he came nearer to the northern coast, until at length the
Roman camps looked down upon the narrow waters which divide
France from England. It is only twenty-two miles from Calais 'to
Dover, and from the coast the Roman soldiers must have seen as
clearly as we can at the present day the great white cliffs of an
" unvisited land," standing high out of the water to the north.
Already they had given a name to this country, and they knew it to
be an island. A great Roman writer who lived in Caesar's day, speaks
of Britain separated by almost the entire world.2 And the name which
the Romans gave to our land we know and are proud to own at the
present day. " Britannia rules the waves.'" Our King is King of
Great Britain and Ireland, and the coins with which we do the
business of our daily lives still bear upon them the Latin inscription
and the name by which Caesar called our country.3
1 Gallia, or Gaul, was divided into two parts : Gallia Cis-Alpina, or "Gaul this side t-f the
Alps," and which included that part of North Ita'.y which is rtbw known as Piedmont ; and Gallia
Tran.-Alpina, or '' Gaul beyond the Alps," which is now the French district of Provence.
a " Penitus wto divisos orbe Britannos " ("The Britains almost all the world away "). — Virgil.
3 The words " Britt : Regina" on the five-shilling piece (see p. 7) are short for " BritaH-
lliariun Regina" or, Queen of Britain. The words written round the five shilling piece in the
picture, stand for "Victoria Dei gratia Britanniarum Regina Fidei Defensor Indiarum Im-
peratrix." The meaning of -wh'ch is " Victoria, by the grace of God, Queen of Great Britain,
Defei.der of the Faith, Empress ot India.''
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The Landing of the Romans.
" But Rome ! 'Tis thine alone with awful sway
To rule mankind, and make the world obey,
Disposing peace and war thy own majestic way ;
To tame the proud, the fettered slave to free : —
These are imperial arts, and worthy thee. "
From Virgil's SEneid, Book VI., translated by Dryden.
Caesar was not the man to leave this new country unexplored and
unconquered. In the year 55 B.C. he collected eighty ships and 12,000
DOVER CLIFFS: "THE WHITE WALLS OF ENGLAND.'
men upon the other side of the Channel, close to the place where the
town of Calais now stands.
A few hours' sailing and rowing brought the fleet to the foot of the
" White Cliffs," but on the shore were to be seen a large number of
THE LANDING OF THE ROMANS,
A "CROWN/ OR FIVE-SHILLING
PIECE.
the Britons who had come down to oppose the landing. The Romans
were disappointed, for they hoped they would have taken the Britons
hy surprise. They feared to land,
and they took their ships farther
along the coast, until they came to
the place where the town of Deal now
stands.
There they made up their minds
that they would land ; but they found
that the water was not deep enough to
allow their ships to get to the shore
Here, too, were large
numbers of Britons,
who were ready to
fight them as soon
as they got to land.
At first it seemed
as if they would
have to sail away once more, but at this
moment a brave Roman soldier came
forward. This soldier was the standard-
bearer of the Romans. Each regiment
in our own army has a flag, which is
carried with the regiment, and of which
all the soldiers are proud. The Roman
regiments were called legions, and each
legion, instead of a flag had a standard,
on the top of which was the figure of
an eagle, made in gold or brass.
The standard-bearer, when he saw
that the soldiers who were with him
in the ship were afraid to land, seized
the " eagle " of the legion in his hand,
and jumped into the water. "Follow
Die, my comrades,'" cried he, " if you
would not see your eagle taken by the
enemy. If I die, I shall have done my
duty to Rome and to my General." When
the Roman soldiers saw this brave
act, they, too, threw themselves into
the water, and though it was deep they waded to the land. The
Britons fought courageously against the newcomers, but the discipline
ROMAN SOLDIERS.
(From Trajan's column.)
8 JJ/STOKY OF ENGLAND.
and military training of the Roman soldiers prevailed, and the
Roman troops disembarked with safety.
In less than three weeks, however, they were compelled to return
to Gaul, and it was not till the summer cf the next year (54 B.C.) that
Caesar returned with a large army to complete his conquest. This
time the resistance he met with was serious. The Britons had had time
to collect a large army, and under a chief of the name of Cassivelaunus
were able for some time to hold the Romans at bay. The Britons
fought in a way to which the Romans were not accustomed. They
went into battle driving at full speed in chariots. To the wooden
wheels of the chariots, scythes or sharp blades were fastened ; and as
long as the chariot was moving fast the sharp blades on the wheels cut
down those who came near it.
But though the Britons had their chariots, the Roman soldiers
proved too strong for them, and at length Caesar forced his way as far
north as the river Thames, near Wallingford, and the Britons, defeated
for a time, consented to make peace, to give hostages, and to promise,
if not to pay, a yearly tribute. Having thus added another victory to
his long list of triumphs, Caesar returned to Gaul, and thence to Rome,
where ten years later (44 B.C.) he met with his death, stabbed by
the traitor Brutus and other political enemies in the midst of the
Roman senate.
Britain and the Britons.
" Who can see the green earth any more
As she was by the sources of Time ?
Who imagines her fields as they lay
In the sunshine, unworn by the plough ?
Who thinks as they thought,
The tribes who once roam cf on her breast,
Her uigorous, primitive sons ? "
Arnold: " The Future."
So far we have looked at Britain from a Roman point of view ; it is
time to inquire what sort of people lived in our island when the
Roman invasion first threw the light of history upon it.
Of the early Britons, their life and their habits, we know little
but what has been told us by the Roman writers. It is fortunate for
us that the age of Julius Caesar was one in which some of the great
Roman authors lived, and two of these authors have left us interesting
accounts of the Britons. The first account is that given by Caesar
BRITAIN AND THE BRITONS. 9
himself, who not only was a great general and a great statesman, but
one of the clearest and best writers of any age.
A second account we get from the pen of one who, as a writer, was
even more famous than Caesar. In a book called the " Agricola"
Cornelius Tacitus has written an account of the Britons as they were a
hundred years after the date of Caesar's landing.
Agricola, the father-in-law of Tacitus, was at that time governor of
Britain, and it is the account which he gave to his son-in-law which is
contained in the "Agricola,"
A BRITON AND HIS BOAT.
From what Caesar and Tacitus tell us we can form some idea of
what the Britons were like. By the Romans they were regarded as
savages, but it is easy to see, by what the Romans themselves tell us
about them, that the Britons were not really savages at all. English
people in our own time sometimes make the same mistake which the
Romans made, and treat the people of other countries as savages and
far below them, just because their habits are strange and their ways of
thought are not like our own.
B*
io HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
We do not know a very great deal about what the Britons were
really like, but we do know some things about them. The men were
tall and handsome, and fought bravely in battle ; but it seems as if
they were rather too fond of fighting, for not only did they fight against
the Romans and other enemies who came from abroad, but they often
quarrelled and fought amongst themselves. They lived in villages
made up of a number of small houses or huts surrounded by a high
wall. They lived chiefly by hunting and fishing, and there were always
plenty of wild animals to kill and fish to catch, for we must not forget
that at the time we are speaking of, England was very different from
what it is now ; the country was covered with thick forests, and the
STONEHENGE AS IT IS.
( From a photograph by J. Valentine & Sons, Dundee. )
rivers, instead of being shut in between close banks, often spread over
the land and made great swamps and marshes. In the forests there
were wolves, wild boars, and many other animals which are quite
unknown in England in our own day. It was of the skins of these
animals that the Britons made their clothes.
The Britons did not drink wine, but they made a strong drink of
honey. This drink is sometimes made now ; it is called mead. The
Britons were heathens and believed that there were many gods. Their
priests were called Druids. These Druids were very strange people;
they used to pretend that they had great and terrible secrets which
were known to them and to nobody else. They said that their gods
lived in the very thickest and darkest parts of the woods, and they
BRITAIN AND THE BRITONS.
TI
used to go to pray to their gods under the great oaks in the forests ;
they wore long white robes, and the people held them in great awe.
The Druids have been dead hundreds of years, and their religion
has long been forgotten ; but there are still some things in England in
our own time to remind us of the white-robed Druids and their strange
religion.
If we take the train to Salisbury, and then take a carriage and drive
rather more than ten miles over Salisbury Plain, we shall suddenly come
STONEHENGE AS IT WAS.
to a very strange sight. In the middle of the plain we shall see a
number of great stones— some of them lying on their sides on the grass,
others standing straight up, and some of them resting upon other great
stones in the way shown in the picture. The stones are of enormous
size and very heavy — many of them are from twenty-three to twenty-
eight feet high.
It seems a wonder how such heavy stones ever got to be set up in
this way ; but we shall find a still more wonderful thing about some of
the stones when we come to look more closely at them. We shall find
that they are not of the same kind as the stones which are found upon
Salisbury Plain, but that they are of a kind which must have come
from a long way off.
12 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The place in which these strange stones have been set up is Stone-
henge, in the middle of Salisbury Plain, and the stones were set up
there before the time of Julius Caesar by the Druids whom we have
been reading about. Stonehenge was one of the places where the
Druids used to worship their gods ; and though no one quite knows
why they set up the stones, it is certain that they were looked upon by
the Britons as being very sacred.
Once there were a great many more stones standing up than can
be seen now. If the stones which have fallen down were still in their
places, we should see that the Druids had made two great circles, one
inside the other ; the outside one of big stones, and the inside one of
THE MISTLETOE BOUGH.
smaller ones. On page n there is a picture of what Stonehenge must
have looked like before any of the stones fell down. There are other
rings of stones in England, but the one at Stonehenge is the largest
and most interesting. All these stones were put up by the Druids ; and
they can be seen to this day by Englishmen, and will help to remind
them of the Britons who lived in our land two thousand years ago.
There is another thing besides the great stone circle which ought to
remind us of the Druids. Most of us, whether we live in town or
country, have seen the sprigs of green leaves with white berries which
are put up among the holly and the laurel leaves at Christmas. They
are the Mistletoe leaves and berries which are gathered from plants
which grow on the stems of the trees in Herefordshire, Gloucestershire,
and in many other parts of England.
It is not easy at first to guess why it is that Mistletoe is hung up in
IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD. 13
so many houses at Christmas time. To find out the answer to the
question we must go back a very long way in history, until we come to
the time of the Druids. It was the Druids who first used the mistletoe.
They thought that its berries were sacred or holy, and they often put
them up in the places where they prayed to. their gods.
We have long forgotten all about the gods to whom the Druids
prayed, but we have not forgotten about the mistletoe they were so
fond of. The Romans came over and conquered the Britons, the great
stones at Stonehenge tumbled down, and many changes, good and bad,
took place in England, but the use of the mistletoe bough was never
quite forgotten ; and when the people of England learned to pray to
another God, and found that the gods of the Druids were false gods,
they still went on using the sacred mistletoe. And thus it happens
that when, in our own time, we come to Christmas Day, the day on
which we commemorate the birth of Christ, we still put up in our
houses the mistletoe berries, which the old Druids first prized in the
time of the Britons.
"In the Year of Our Lord."
"For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, which
is Christ the Lord."— Luke ii. n.
It was not till nearly a hundred years after Julius Caesar had gone
away that the Romans came a second time into Britain. Julius Caesar
was dead, and the Roman Emperor was Claudius. Claudius deter-
mined that he would follow the example of Julius Caesar, but that
this time the Britons should be really beaten, and that their country
should belong to Rome.
But, before we follow the fortunes of the army which Claudius sent
to Britain, there is one thing which we must notice. If we wish to
write down the year in which Julius Caesar came to Britain, we write it
in this way — " 55 B.C." ; but if we want to write the year in which
Claudius sent an army, we put — " A.D. 43."
What do "B.C." and "A.D." mean? The letters "B.C." mean
" before Christ," and, therefore, " 55 B.C." means fifty-five years before
Christ was born. The letters " A.D." stand for two Latin words —
Anno Domini — which mean "in the year of our Lord." "A.D. 43"
means forty-three years after the year in which Christ was born.
14 HISTORY or- ENGLAND.
People now sometimes write the year in which we live in this way —
they say "A.D. 1900," or "A.D. 1910," meaning that the year in which
we live is the one thousand nine hundredth, or the one thousand nine
hundred and tenth, year after the year in which Christ was born.
Now, we can easily understand that, between the year 55 B.C. and
the year A.D. 43, a great thing must have happened.
It was in the years between the coining of Julius Caesar and the
coming of the Romans in the time of Claudius that the great event
which divides the history of the old world from that of the new had
taken place, and that Christ was born in Bethlehem. While the memory
of the Roman general who had defeated their armies was still fresh in
the minds of the people of Britain, and while they were .anxiously
looking out for the return of the Roman galleys, a Roman Emperor
had issued a Decree " that all the world should be taxed," and a
Roman officer commanding in the Province of Judaea had carried out
the Imperial order. A Roman magistrate, sitting in the Judgment
Hall at Jerusalem, had allowed sentence of death to be passed upon
the Prisoner whom the Jews had brought before him. Jesus had been
crucified, and His death had been the birth of a new hope, of a new life,
and of a new faith which was to spread throughout the world. The
birthday of England as we know it is almost the same as the birthday
of Christianity, and the twentieth century of the Christian Era is the
twentieth century in the history of our country.
And thus we see that if we want to know when the history of our
country, so far as we know anything about it, begins, we have only to
remember that it began just before the birth of Christ, and that, if we
know the year in which we live, we shall know the number of years
which have passed since the Romans first came to Britain.
Caraetacus and Boadieea.
" When the British war: lor Queen,
Bleeding from the Roman rods,
Sought, with an indignant mien,
Counsels of her country's gods." — Cowper.
When the Romans came with Julius Caesar, they only stopped in
Britain for two years, but when they came a second time under
Claudius they, and their descendants after them, remained for over three
hundred and sixty years. At first they brought nothing but war and
misery with tham. The Britons fought fiercely. This time they were
1 6" HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
led by a chief called Caractacus, who for a long time was able to keep
up a successful resistance to the Roman armies. But at last he was
beaten in a great battle, and was taken prisoner. He was sent to
Rome, and there brought before the Emperor Claudius (A.D. 51).
When Caractacus was brought before Claudius, he spoke to him
boldly and told him that he was not ashamed of what he had done, but
proud of it — that he had only fought for his country. " I am in your
power," said he to the Emperor, "and you can do what you please with
me; but I am only here because I was true to my country, and because I would
not promise to obey your latt's and to be your servant. You can put me to
death, but you will gain more honour if you spare my life" When Claudius
and the Roman officers who stood with him heard these brave words,
they could not help admiring the proud Briton. Claudius com-
manded that the prisoner's life should be spared and that he should be
well treated.
But the war between the Romans and the Britons did not end when
Caractacus was taken prisoner. There arose among the Britons a fresh
leader, whose name has become famous in our history. This leader
was Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni, the widow of one of the British Chiefs.
Boadicea hated the Romans, and she had good reason to do so ; for
not only had they been very unjust to her husband when he was alive,
but when she went to complain to the Roman Governor, instead of
doing justice, he ordered her to be seized and to be beaten with rods.
Boadicea therefore hated the Romans, both because they were enemies
of her country and because they had been cruel to her. She called
upon her countrymen to join her in resisting the enemy, and many of
them gathered round her, prepared to follow wherever she led them.
It is said that Boadicea was tall and beautiful, with long flowing
hair, and that she appeared before her people clad in a long robe and
with a gold chain about her waist. Her beauty and her courage made
her loved by the Britons, and the Romans soon learnt to fear her. In
more than one battle the Britons, under Boadicea, defeated the Roman
soldiers, and for a time it seemed as if the brave queen would succeed
in driving her hated enemies out of the land.
The Romans had built a town upon the banks of a river which
we now call the Thames. The name of the town was Londinium, a
name which we now know much better as London. Already Lon-
Jiniuro. had become a large place, and besides the Romans who
lived there, there were many Britons who had taken the side of the
Romans. It was to Londinium that Boadicea now led her army.
As she came near the town, the Roman soldiers saw that there were
not enough of them to resist the great army of the Briton?, and they
R.OMAN CAMPS AND ROMAN ROADS. 17
marched away, leaving behind them all their friends who had trusted
them. Soon Boadicea came to the gates, and, once inside the town,
the fierce Britons showed no mercy. Thousands of the people of
Londinium were killed, and the town was all but destroyed.
But the British Queen had won her last victory. The Roman
general, whose name was Suetonius, collected his scattered troops, and
marched against the Queen. Boadicea, on her side, was ready for the
battle. She called upon the Britons to fight like men, to rid their
country of its enemies, and to avenge the cruelty which had been done
to herself. She stood in the midst of the army, and declared that she
would rather kill herself than allow herself to be taken prisoner by the
Romans. The battle began. The army of the Britons was far larger
than that of the Romans, but the Roman soldiers had long been taught
how to fight together, and to obey the orders that were given them.
It was not long before the battle was over. The Britons were quite
unable to resist the Romans. No less than eighty thousand of them
were killed. Boadicea herself was true to her promise. Rather than
be taken prisoner by the Romans, she took poison, and thus ended her
own life (A.D. 62). With her death ended the hopes of the Britons, and
from that time the Romans were masters of the whole country.
Roman Camps and Roman Roads.
" Thine, Roman, is the pilum : l
Roman, the sword is thine,
The even trench, the bristling mound,
The legion 's ordered line. "
Macaulay: " Prophecy of Capys."
After the death of Bcadicea, the Romans soon became masters of
nearly all that part of Britain which we now call England. At first they
had to fight many battles, but after a time the Britons submitted to
the Romans and agreed to obey their laws. For nearly four hundred
years the Romans stopped in this country, and in our own day we can
still find many marks of the things they did while they were here.
It would indeed be strange if, after they had been so long in Britain,
the Romans had not left something by which we might remember
them. They were a very wonderful people, and have set an example
1 nimii, a short, broad-headed heavy spear borne by the Roman soldiers.
1 8 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
in many things to all the nations who have come after them. The
Roman soldiers were the wonder of the world. During time of peace
they were always practising what they would have to do in time of war.
They could fight well, and they could march well. Nor was this all;
they knew how to protect themselves against an enemy as well as they
knew how to attack an enemy when they wished.
Whenever the Roman soldiers came to the end of a day's march,
in whatever part of the world they were, they did the same thing.
THE ROMAN GATEWAY AT LINCOLN.
They built a wall of earth, and made a ditch round their camp, arid, as
all the soldiers knew how to work, and all worked together, the ditch
was dug, and the wall was built, before the soldiers lay down to sleep.
Sometimes they built much larger camps than those which were wanted
for one night only. These camps had deep ditches and high walls, and
they were usually placed on the top of a hill. In many parts of England
these Roman camps may still be seen ; and not only are the camps
themselves still to be found in England, but the very names by which
the Romans called them are used by Englishmen every day. The
Latin word for camp is "castra"; and though we have not got exactly
the word " castra " in English, we have something like it. We have
ROMAN CAMPS AND ROMAN ROADS. TQ
all heard of Chester, the capital of Cheshire, which stands on the
river Dee. The word "Chester" is really the same as " castra" and
Chester got its name because in the time of the Romans there was a
"camp or strong place full of soldiers there.
But Chester is not the only place where we find a Roman name.
We have C/;/-chesber, A'o- Chester, Man- Chester, and many others; and
we have also the word castra written caster, in such places as Lan-
caster, Do;; -caster, Tad -cutter. The names of all these places tell us
quite plainly that the Roman soldiers once upon a time built their wall
20
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
and dug their ditch there in the days that came after the landing of
Julius Caesar.
The Romans, too, were great builders', they knew how to erect
large buildings of stone and specially of brick. Most of the buildings
which they built in Britain have fallen into ruin, but parts of them
have been found in many places; and enough is left to show how
beautiful the buildings must have been when they were new. The
floors of t]je_jK)uses were paved
with tiles in artistic patterns;
there were carved pillars inside
and outside the houses. There
were baths supplied with hot
water, and there were many
comforts which we sometimes
think were not known before
our own time. In some places
beautiful statues have been dug
up, and many thousands of gold
and silver and. copper coins have
been found which have stamped
on them the heads of the Roman
Emperors, and Latin words which
tell us something about the coins.
But though the Romans were
'amous as builders of houses, they
ere still more famous as makers
roads. The Romans were the
st people to make great roads
fiom one end of England to the
other. The roads were paved
with stone, and they ran in a
straight line up hill and down dale from one town to another. Nowa-
days it would not be considered wise to take the roads straight up
the hills ; it is more usual to go round a hill rather than to go up
it. But the Romans were quite right to do as they did in their time.
If we want to go from one place to another, the shortest distance
between the two places is always a straight line. In the picture on
this page are two points, A and B, and there is a straight line joining
them. We may try as long as we like, but we cannot find a shorter
way from A to B than the straight line.
The reason why we do not make our roads go in a straight line
now is that we use a great many carriages and carts, and it is very
THE SHORTEST DISTANCE BETWEEN TW
POINTS IS A STRAIGHT LINE.
22 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
hard for a horse to pull a carriage or a cart up-hill. But when the
Romans were in Britain carriages and carts were scarcely used at all,
and those who went on long journeys travelled either on foot or on
horseback ; their luggage was taken from place to place on the back?;
of horses or mules. The hills, therefore, did not matter very much,
and a straight road enabled the Roman soldiers to get from place
to place very quickly. There are many places in England where the
roads still follow exactly the same line as the old Roman roads.
Sometimes we come to a stretch of road which goes on quite
straight for several miles ; we may generally be sure that we are on
the line of a road which has never changed for eighteen hundred years,
and which was first planned by one of the Roman officers under the
command of Vespasian or Severus, or Titus, or some other Roman
general. The best known Roman roads in England are called "The
Watling Street," which goes from London to Chester ; " The Fosse Way,"
which goes from Bath to Lincoln ; " The Ermine Street," which goes
from London to Lincoln and on to York; and "The Seaside Road,"1
which runs all along the sea-coast of Wales down into Pembrokeshire.
Besides their buildings and their roads, the Romans have also left us
a very wonderful mark of their work on the border between England and
Scotland. After the Romans had made peace in that part of Britain
which is now called England, and had begun to rule quietly there, they
found that they were often troubled by enemies who came down from
the country which we now call Scotland ; these enemies were known
as the "Picts."
The Romans fought and beat the Picts many times, but they found
them so troublesome that at last they built a great wall right across the
country to keep them out. The Roman Emperor Hadrian ordered the
wall to be built (A.D. 121), and after Hadrian's death another Roman
Emperor, named Severus, built a second wall. This wall is called " The
Wall of Severus," and many parts of both are still to be seen in our own
day. So that there are many things still left in our country to remind
us that the Romans once ruled over it.
1 Via Maritima.
Roman Christianity— Departure of the Romans.
"And departing leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time."
Longfellow : " Psalm of Life."
There is one other thing which the Romans gave to this country,
and which would have been the most important of all their gifts had
it lasted. This great gift was Christianity, which was first introduced
into England during the time of the Roman occupation. After many
struggles and much suffering the Christians had obtained permission
to carry on their worship at Rome. Gradually their teaching spread
until, in the year 312, Constantine the Great, the first Christian
Emperor, ascended the throne.
In the year 306 Christianity had been already introduced into
England under the rule of Constantine, whose British mother, Helena of
York, became known in after years by the name of St. Helena. But
though Constantine was a Christian, he was unable to protect those of
his own religion from the fierce persecution of the Emperor Diocletian.
Many of the British Christians, it is said, were put to death for refusing
to give up their religion, and the name of Alban has been handed down
to us as that of the first martyr in the British Church. His name is
still preserved by the famous Cathedral of St. Albans, in Hertfordshire.
The persecution, however, did not prevent the spread of Christianity.
Bishops were created, and churches were built. Of these churches
traces have been found in our own day, but for the most part they
were destroyed in the terrible years that followed the departure of
the Romans from Britain. Roman Christianity was indeed swept
away, and Britain once more became a pagan land.
The Romans stopped in Britain for nearly four hundred years, and
during the greater part of that time there was peace and quiet in the
country. So long as the Roman soldiers were here, there was little
fear of any fresh enemy coming and taking the country. But at length
there came news from Rome that a formidable enemy was marching
against Italy, and that the Emperor was afraid that Rome itself would
be taken. At such a time every Roman soldier was needed to defend
Italy and Rome ; and orders were therefore sent that the armies
which were in Britain should return to Italy.
This was sad news for the Britons, for by this time they had come
to look upon the Romans more as friends than as foes, and they feared
to lose the Roman soldiers who had so long protected them from every
24 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
enemy. Besides, the Romans had built towns in Britain ; many of
them were married to British wives, and they had begun to teach the
Britons the arts which they had brought with them from Italy.
For* all these reasons, the Britons were naturally grieved when the
order came for the Roman legions to sail across the Straits of Dover
and to leave the white cliffs of Britain behind them. But a soldier
must do what he is ordered, and the Romans were too good soldiers
to disobey the orders which they received from Rome. The legions
marched down to the sea-coast, got into their ships, and sailed away
across the sea on their road home to Italy.
What happened to the legions when they got to Rome, and how
the great city of Rome, which had conquered so many countries, was
at last itself conquered, can be read in the history of Rome. But we
are reading the history of England, and we must now bid farewell to
the Roman soldiers as we lose sight of the sails of their ships crossing
the Channel between England and France.
CHAPTER II.
THE COMING OF THE SAXONS.
436-449.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED DURING THE PERIOD
.DESCRIBED IN THIS CHAPTER.
Attila, King of the Huns, b. 406, d. 453. | Hengist , Chief of the Saxons, d. 488.
PRINCIPAL EVENT DURING THE PERIOD DESCRIBED IN THIS
CHAPTER.
449. Invasion of Britain by Hengist and Horsa.
The Gathering* of the Storm
'-' Dark and many-folded clouds foretell
The coming on of storm."- Longfellow.
Now that we have seen the last of the Roman soldiers sailing back
to their own country, we must return once more to the story of
THE GATHERING OF THE STORM. 25
Britain and of the Britons now left behind without the protection of
the Roman sword. For nearly four 'hundred years the Britons had
been ruled over by a people stronger than themselves, and, though
they had doubtless gained much from their masters, the very fact
that they had not had to depend upon their own valour for their
own safety had made them less fit to resist an enemy than on the day
when they stood on the shore at Deal, ready to face the legions of
Julius Caesar.
A people which has ceased to rely upon itself for its own defence
must always be in danger. The Britons had learnt to rely upon the
Romans to fight their battles for them, but now they would have
to fight their own battles themselves. It was not long before their
strength was put to the test by an enemy more terrible than any they
had yet had to encounter.
It sometimes happens that before the beginning of a great storm,
when the sky has already become overclouded and the air has become
still and hushed, a few big drops of rain come splashing down by them-
selves, and seem to tell us of the downpour which will so soon drench
the earth. Something like this happened in Britain in the years which
passed just before the Romans sailed away.
From time to time there reached the shores of Britain ships filled
with fierce soldiers from a land across the seas ; these men were tall,
strong, fair-haired, armed with swords and axes, and talking a language
quite different from that of either the Britons or the Romans. Wherever
they landed they brought fear and alarm with them. They robbed
the people and killed those who resisted them ; and, after they had
taken what plunder they could get, they launched their ships and
sailed away again to the land from which they came.
But so long as the well-drilled Roman soldiers remained, these war-
like strangers did not do more than visit the coasts of Britain and sail
away again. The Roman armies were always ready to meet them and
to protect the Britons. But these short visits were like the raindrops,
they foretold the terrible storm which was soon to break over Britain.
26 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The Sea Rovers.
" Thirty men they each commanded,
Iron-sinewed, horny-handed,
Shoulders broad, and chest expanded;
Tugging at the oar.
These, and many more like these,
With King Olaf sailed the seas,
Till the waters vast
Filled them with a vague devotion,
With the freedom and the motion,
With the roll and roar of ocean,
And the sounding blast."
Longfellow : " The Saga of King Olaf.'*
And now it is time to ask who these new-comers were, and from
what land they had sailed in their ships.
The country from which these people came is now a portion of what
we call Germany It touches the shores of the Baltic Sea, and of the
German Ocean, and it conies down close to that part which we now
call Holland. The people who came from these countries belonged
to three tribes or nations. These tribes or nations were called the
Saxons, the Angles, and the Jutes.
We cannot tell exactly what it was that made the Saxons, the
Angles, and the Jutes leave their own country and sail across the sea
to Britain. Perhaps it was that they thought their own country was
a poor one, and they wished to find some more fertile land in which
to live. It is very likely that they had such a thought, for even now
the north of Germany and the south of Denmark, which are the
countries in which the Jutes and the Angles lived, are barren and
sandy, covered in many places with forests of fir-trees, and unfit to
grow wheat upon.
There were other reasons, too, which made the Jutes, the Angles,
and the Saxons wish to cross the sea. There were other nations behind
them who kept attacking them and driving them forward down to the
sea; and when they got there, they were glad to seek for a new
country in which no one would disturb them.
And, last of all, there was, no doubt, another reason which made the
Jutes, the Angles, and the Saxons leave their homes. They had just
THE FORD OF THE MED WAY. 27
the same love of adventure which many English people have nowadays.
They loved to travel, and to find new lands ; and if, when they came to
a new land, they had to fight for it, they did not object. Indeed, they
liked fighting quite as well as being at peace — perhaps better ; and in
this matter, too, they were not unlike some Englishmen in our own
day, who like adventures all the better if there be danger in them.
No sooner had the last of the Roman soldiers left the shores of
Britain, and the strong power of the Romans been taken away, than
the storm which had been so long hanging over England began to
break. The Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes came over the sea in
their ships, not as before, a few at a time, but in great numbers. They
did not, as before, land to plunder and sail away again, but they
landed upon our shores and stopped there, with no thought of going
back to their own country. All along the south coast of England their
ships were to be seen. Everywhere the Britons resisted, but everywhere,
in the long run, the result was the same. The new-comers were
victorious, and step by step they pushed the Britons further back from
the coast.
The Ford of the River Medway.
"History repeats itself."
Among the earliest of the invaders were two great Saxon chiefs
named Hengist and Horsa, who are said to have landed at Ebbsfleet, in
Kent, in the year 449. For a time they settled in the Isle of Thanet,
but picking a quarrel with the Britons, they marched with their armies
upon London. The story runs that a great battle took place upon the
River Medway, in the year 455, at a place called Aylesford, and that in
this battle Horsa was killed. It is not certain whether the story of the
death of Horsa be more than a legend, but it seems clear that at or
about the time named a great battle did take place between the Saxons
and the Britons, in which the Britons tried to prevent the Saxons
crossing the Medway and getting to London, and that in this battle the
Britons were defeated.
It is interesting to remember that, over and over again, battles have
been fought upon the River Medway for just the same reason as this
battle between the Saxons and the Britons. If we look at the
map, we shall see that the part of England which is closest to the
2 8 ttl STORY OF
continent of Europe is the county of Kent, and that anyone who lands
in the count-y of Kent, and wants to get to London, will have to cross
the River Medway. He will not try to cross where »it is very broad,
but he will be forced to go up as far as Chatham, where the stream is
narrow, and where there is now a bridge over it. The easiest and the
shortest way from the coast of Kent to London, is across the Medway
at Chatham; and it is for this reason that, all through English
history, those who wanted to defend London against an enemy, have
made a great fortress at Chatham.
If we go to Chatham now, we can still see what is left of the fortresses
which our forefathers built at different times. The Romans, who were
very great soldiers, always knew which was the best place for a fortress,
and they were the first to make a great " camp " close to Chatham.
The towns of Rochester and Chatham touch each other. Now " Chester,"
as we have already learnt, is really the Latin word for a " camp," and
we know, therefore, from the name that there was a Roman camp at
Rochester.
After the Remans had gone, the Britons in their turn made a strong
fortress at Chatham, and when the Saxons came this fortress prevented
them crossing the river at this place. They were forced to come up the
bank of the river till they reached Aylesford. Then the Saxons built a
strong fortress at Chatham, and after them the Normans, of whom we
shall read later on, built a great stone castle, of which there is a picture
on the next page, and which, though it is in ruins, can be seen at the
present day. After gunpowder was invented, the Norman castle was
not strong enough to defend the crossing of the Medway, and another
fortress, built of earth and brick, was made in its place. The greater
part of these earth and brick walls still remain, and we can see them
any day if we go to Chatham. And now, quite lately, a new fortress
has been built all round Chatham, to prevent an enemy crossing
the Medway, and. to protect the ships of war which lie at Chatham.
And so we see that though times have changed, and though many
years have gone by, the reason which made the Britons defend the
Medway in the time of Hengist and Horsa, more than fourteen hundred
years ago, is the reason which makes us defend it with a great fortress
in the days in which we live.
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
CHAPTER III.
THE SAXON CONQUEST.
449-597.
FAMOUS PERSONS W-HO LIVED DURING THE PERIOD
DESCRIBED IN THIS CHAPTER.
Attila, King of the Huns, d. 453.
ClOViS, King of the Franks, b. 4^5, d. 511.
Hengist, Chief of the Saxons, d. 488.
Horsa, the companion of Hengist, killed at
Aylesford, 449.
Justinian, the great Roman law-maker, b.
483, d. 565.
-Ethelbert, King of Kent, b. 552.
Bertha, daughter of Charibert,
Paris, wife of ^Ethelbert.
Ida, King of Bernicia, 547.
King of
St. Patrick, d, 491.
Columtoa, the great Irish preacher, b. 521,
d. 597-
Columban, the great Irish Missionary, b.
about 543.
Gregory I., called " The Great," Pope.
The following are sufifcsed to have lived
in the sixth century '. —
King Arthur.
Gildas, the historian of King Arthur.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS WHICH TOOK PLACE DURING THE
PERIOD DESCRIBED IN THIS CHAPTER.
449 Hengist nnd Horsa land in Kent.
452. Attila invades Italy.
457. The Kingdom of Kent founded.
477. Landing of the South Saxons.
486. Clovis, King of the Franks, defeats the
Romans at the battle of Soissons.
495. Landing of the West Saxons.
520. Victory of the Britons at Badon Hill.
547. Ida founds the Kingdom of Bernicia.
561. ^Ethelbert becomes King of Kent.
565. St. Columba commences his mission in
Scotland.
595. St. Columban starts upon a mission to
France.
The Breaking- of the Storm; or, Britons and Saxons.
"Cold is Cadujallo's tongue,
That hush'd the stormy main :
Brave Urien sleeps upon his craggy bed :
Mountains, ye mourn in uain
Modred, whose magic song
Made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-topt head."
Gray : " The Bard."
FROM the time of the landing of Hengist and Horsa the history of
England ceases to be an account of either the Britons or the Romans,
and is occupied with the spread and final settlement of the great flood
of German invaders which now began to pour into the country. For
two hundred years the invasion continued, one wave following another.
At the end of that time we find the various tribes of invaders firmly
established in England ; we find them divided into many separate
THE BREAKING OF THE STORM. 31
kingdoms under various leaders. The Britons have been driven out
and are no longer to be feared, and the new-comers have begun to
quarrel fiercely among themselves.
Nearly four centuries pass, during which first one Saxon kingdom,
and then another, becomes the most powerful, and defeats its rivals.
At last, in the year 827, Egbert, King of the West Saxons, becomes
the first king of all England. The chief work of the king of the
united country is to defend it against the attack of fresh invaders —
the fierce Danes, who for a time seem likely to treat the Saxons as the
Saxons treated the Britons. And lastly, Saxons and Danes together
are forced to give battle to yet another invader, and are defeated by
the Normans at the battle of Hastings in the year 1066.
The story of the events which have just been referred to must be
told at greater length ; but it is well to look forward a little at this
point in our history, in order that we may understand how great a
period of time elapsed before the first landing of the Jutes in 449, and
the conquest of England by the Normans in 1066.
In this book, as in every other history of England, great or small,
far more space is given up to the events which took place after the
year 1066, than to those which took place before that date; and yet, if
we look at the scroll which is unfolded at page 104, we shall see that
the portion of our history which is so fully described occupied far less
time than that of which so scanty an account is given. From the
landing of Julius Cassar to the time of the Norman Conquest is little
more than eleven hundred years ; while the period which elapsed between
the landing of Hengist and Horsa and the coming of the Normans in
1066, which is described in a few short chapters in this book, was no
less than six centuries.
It is easy to understand why our history should contain much
shorter descriptions of early times than of late times. The historian
can only write of things which he has learnt through books and records.
In our own day everything which takes place, is written down, and the
great difficulty of the historian is to know what things are important
enough to be told by him ; but in the early Saxon days there was little
writing, and in those times of fierce wars even the few written docu-
ments which did exist had little chance of escaping destruction.
It is important to remember these things, because we are sometimes
liable to forget that the life of a people goes on just the same in days
of which history gives us little or no account, as in days when every
event is written down and recorded. Although we know less about the
six hundred years which passed between the landing of Hengist and
Horsa and the landing of the Normans, than we do of the eight
32 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
hundred years which followed the last-named event, we must not
suppose that they were, on that account, less important, or had less
effect in making our country and our people what they are, than the
last eight centuries of which history tells us so much.
The two hundred years of our history which follow the landing of
Hen gist are occupied with the invasion of our islands by the Angles,
the Saxons, and the Jutes. Not in one year, nor, indeed, in many years,
was the invasion accomplished. Fierce battles were fought, in some
of which, if the old British legends sung by the Bards can be
believed, the Britons won the victory. Of one great battle, of which
the name has come down to us, the battle of Badon Hill,1 the legend
seems undoubtedly true.
But though victory sometimes cheered the Britons, the end was
always the same. Checked for a moment, the new-comers waited
until fresh ships could come over the sea bringing more of their
friends to help them.
The fight between the Saxons and the Britons was very different
from that which had taken place five hundred years before between
the Briton and the Romans. The Roman armies had beaten the
people of Britain and made them obey the laws of Rome. But the
Britons, who remained in their land, had learnt to live peaceably and
quietly under the Romans. Many of the Romans married 'British
i wives, and the Romans taught the Britons many arts and accomplish -
' ments which the Britons were quite ready to learn. But it was quite
different when the Saxons came. They did not spare their enemies ;
they drove all before them, and those who did not fly they put to
death. They took the lands of the Britons for themselves, and drove
from them all those who had formerly lived on them. And so it
happened that, at the end of the long fight between the Saxons and
. the Britons, nearly the whole of England was inhabited only by the
* Angles, the Jutes, and the Saxons ; and the Britons who had been left
alive were shut up in a small part of this island.
If we look at the map on the opposite page, we shall see a broad
line which runs down one side. This line runs from Carlisle to Chester,
from Chester to Cardiff, and from Cardiff to Plymouth. On the left
hand — that is to say, on the West side of this line — we shall see marked
Cornwall, Wales, and Strathclyde. We know Cornwall and Wales nowa-
days, but we no longer know anything about Strathclyde. Strathclyde
is really that part of England and Scotland in which the counties oi
Cumberland, Westmorland, Renfrew, Lanark, Ayr, Dumfries, Kirkcud-
bright, and Wigtown now are. It was into these three parts of our
1 Fought probably in the neighbourhood of Bath, or some think at Badbury, in Dorsetshire.
THE BREAKING OF THE STORM.
33
island that the unfortunate Britons were pushed by the Saxons, and it
is easy to see how this came about.
The Saxons, the Jutes, and the Angles came over from the North of
Europe, and landed on the East side of England. As they pushed the
Britons before them, it was only natural that they should at last push
MAP OF ENGLAND SHOWING THE DIVISION BETWEEN THE SAXONS
AND THE BRITONS.
them up against the farthest edge of the island ; and thus it was that
the Britons came to be found in Wales, Cornwall, and Strathclyde only.
Many of those who live now in these parts of the kingdom are de-
scended from the ancient Britons ; and the beautiful and interesting
language of Wales is really that of our British forefathers. In Cornwall
this language is no longer spoken ; but if we go across the Channel
to France, we shall find that in the province of Brittany," the province
c
34 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
whose very name reminds us of Britain, a language is still spoken
which is almost the same as that which is spoken by many
Welshmen to-day in the counties of Merioneth and Carnarvon.
Although the greater part of England is now inhabited by men and
women of Saxon race, and who naturally speak English, it must not be
forgotten that the ancient British race still is to be found in Wales.
To those who only know English, many of the Welsh names appear
strange, difficult to pronounce, and impossible to understand ; but
that is only because Englishmen do not, as a rule, know the meaning
of the Welsh names. WThen we find such names as Wells, Bath, Red-ditch,
Cold-stream, and so on, we think them natural enough, because they are
made up of simple words with which we are familiar. But when we
see such names as Llwmpia, Llwyn Helig, and Pontrhydvendigred, we
think them strange, forgetting that to those who know the language to
which they belong they are just as simple, and have as much meaning,
as our own English names, and that " Magpies' Grove," " Willow
Grove," and the " Bridge of the Blessed Ford" tell their own stories
quite plainly to those who still speak the language of the Britons.
The defeat and expulsion of the Britons meant also the defeat and
expulsion of Christianity from all that part of England which the
heathen invaders made their own. The churches which had been
built in Roman times were destroyed ; the priests were put to death,
or barely escaped with their lives to the mountains of Wales. Once
more the land was inhabited by a heathen people worshipping idols.
But though the worship of Christ was for the time almost entirely
banished from England, there still remained in the western part of our
island a small remnant of the British population, who did, undoubtedly,
preserve their faith and maintain their churches -through all the dark
years of the early Saxon invasions. In Wales Christianity never
altogether died out ; and though it does not appear that the Welsh
Christians ever attempted to teach their religion to the Saxons, they
rendered a great service to England in another way. From the Welsh
coasts Christian teachers found their way over to Ireland, and there
preached and taught with great success. We shall see how, in later
days, Irish teachers came back to England, and how they helped to
convert the Saxons, whose ancestors had destroyed the Church of
the Britons and had driven the British Christians across the Irish
Channel.
NAMES NEW AND OLD. 35
Names New and 01(L
The waters murmur of their name ;
The woods are peopled with their fame ;
The silent pillar, lone and gray.
Their memory sparkles o'er the fountain ;
The meanest rill, the mightiest river,
Rolls mingling with their fame for ever." — Byron.
And now *we must return to the history of the invaders who had
succeeded in winning for themselves the possession of our country.
We know that, for the most part, they were made up of three great
tribes or nations — the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles. Let us see
whether we know anything about them nowadays. We certainly do
not know the name Jutes in England ; but we have only to cross the
North Sea to Denmark, the land from which the Jutes came, and we
shall find there the province of Jutland, or the land of the Jutes ; so the
name of the Jutes is not yet forgotten. Do we know the name of the
Saxons in England ? We do not, but of the Saxons who live in the
kingdom of Saxony, in the German Empire, we all know something ;
yet the name of Saxon is not altogether unfamiliar to us in England
itself. The Highland Scots still call the English-speaking Lowlanders
" Sassenach," or Saxon, and there are few who have not heard the
English people themselves called " Anglo-Saxons." The term describes
the people descended from the Angles and the Saxons together ; and
thus, though we have no Saxons, so called, in England, we have
millions of people who are often described as Anglo-Saxons.
And now we come to the last of the great invading peoples, the
Angles. Do we know anything of the Angles in England at the present
day ? We have seen that there is Jutland, the land of the Jutes; that
there is Saxony, the land of the Saxons — is there also an Angleland, the
land of the Angles ? Undoubtedly there is. It is true that we do not call
that land "Angleland," but we call it by a name so similar that there is
no difficulty in guessing in a moment what that country is. If, instead of
Angleland, we say England, we shall see that the Angleland to which the
Angles came is our own England in which we live and whose name is
36 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
so famous throughout the world. It is to the Angles that we owe
the name of our country and the great English language which we
speak.
The Saxons who drove out and defeated the Britons were heathens
and worshipped idols. Their gods were called Thor and Woden, Freia,
and Tu, or Tuesco ; these were their chief gods, and there were others
besides. It is many hundred years ago since anybody living in
England worshipped Thor, Woden, Freia, or Tuesco. We shall
read further on how the Saxons became Christians, and how they gave
up their belief in their old gods. But though we who live in England
no longer worship the gods of the Saxons, it would not be true to say
that we have forgotten all about them; on the contrary, not a day
passes on which we do not mention the name of one or other of
them. This seems strange at first, but it is quite true. When we
say that we will do a thing on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or
Friday, we are really giving the names of four of the old gods of
the Saxons. This is clear when we come to think over the names
of the days of the week.
What does Tuesday mean ? It means Tuesco's Day, which we have
cut short and made into Tuesday. It is not hard to guess that
Wednesday is the same thing as Woden's Day; Thor's Day only needs
to be altered by one letter to become Thursday ; while Friday, as we
can guess in a moment, is the day of the goddess Freia,1
And so we see that, when we speak of the days of the week, we are
really going back into the history of England, and are using words
and names which were first brought into England by the Saxons
who landed on our shores with Hengist and Horsa. History becomes
more real when we find out things like this. They show us that
we have really and truly come down from the Saxons who landed
in England fourteen hundred years ago; and the words which
Hengist and Horsa and their followers used then, we use in our
daily speech.
For a long time the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes kept
separate from one another. There was not one great Saxon people
in England, but a number of small tribes, each tribe under its own
king or chief. If we want to know the names of some of these nations,
or tribes, we have only got to look at the map. But, it will be said,
how can we find these names on the map ? There were no atlases
in the time of the Saxons; and all these nations and tribes have
1 Sunday is, of course, the day of the Slin ; Monday, the day of the niOOn ; while Saturday,
or " Saeterday," means Saturn's day.
THE ENGLISH KINGDOMS.
38 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
come to an end long ago, and their names will not be marked in
any map of England which we have now.
Let us see. If we go back to the old Saxon histories, we shall
find that some of the Angles landed on our shores near where the
town of Yarmouth now stands. They divided into two tribes; some
of them went north, and some of them stayed where they were, or
went south. Those who went north were called the "North Folk";
those who stayed in the south were called the " South Folk"
Then we find that the Saxons, like the Angles, divided themselves
up into several tribes ; some went south, some west, some east, and
a fourth tribe was to be found in the middle of the other three ; and
soon people began to talk of the country of the South Saxons, the
West Saxons, the East Saxons, and the Middle Saxons. Then, too,
we read of a tribe which was called the " Dorsaetas," and of another
which was known as the " Wiltsaetas," and there were many other
tribes whose names might be given.
Now it will be said that, however long we look upon the map of
England, we shall never find marked upon it the country of the
"North Folk" and the "South Folk," of the "West Saxons" or
the " East Saxons," the " Wiltsaetas," or the " Dorsaetas." It is
quite true that we shall not find these very names, but we shall find
names so very like them that it does not require to be very clever
to guess that they are really the same. We have not the country
of the " North Folk " or the " South Folk," but we shall find the
counties of " Norfolk " and " Suffolk " on the map in a moment. We do
not talk of the " Middle Saxons," the " East Saxons," or the " South
Saxons," but we do talk of "Middlesex," "Essex," and "Sussex." And,
in the same way, though we have not got the "Wiltsaetas" nor the
" Dorsaetas," we all know something about the counties of " Wilts "
and "Dorset." We see that, though more than a thousand years
have passed since the Saxons first came to live in England, and first
gave Saxon names to the places in which they lived, we have never
forgotten those names, but still use them every day just as the
Saxons did who first gave them to us.
If we look at the map on the previous page, we shall see that it is
divided into no less than twelve different districts, of which the
greater number are in that part of the British Islands which is now
known as England. It will be well to study the map closely, and
to learn the names of the different divisions. Our special attention
should be given to the divisions which are. marked Kent, Northumbria,
Mercia, and Wessex; for each of these became in turn the most im-
portant of the Saxon kingdoms.
NAMES NEW AND OLD.
39
On the west side of the island are three districts, Strathclyde, North
Wales, which is the whole of Wales as we now know it, and West Wales,
which now bears the name of Cornwall. These are the districts which,
for a long time after the first coming of the Saxons, remained British.
Strathclyde has long ago become Saxon ; West Wales has lost its
British language, and though it is still distinguished in many ways
from the other Saxon and English-speaking counties, it is really as
much a part of Saxon England as the neighbouring county of Devon.
In North Wales and parts of South Wales alone the British tongue
and the British race still hold their own, and the Welsh language of
to-day is really the same as that which was spoken by the Britons of
the fifth and sixth centuries.
CHAPTER IV.
HOW THE SAXONS BECAME ENGLISH, AND THE ENGLISH
BECAME CHRISTIANS.
597—837.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE PERIOD DESCRIBED IN
THIS CHAPTER.
JEthelbert, King of Kent, b. about 552, d. 616.
Bertha, daughter of Charibert, King of Paris,
wife of Ethelhert.
£ithelfrith, King of Northumbria, d. 617.
Edwin, King of Northumbria, b. 586, d. 633.
-flJthelburga, daughter of ^thelbert, King
of Kent, wife of Edwin.
Oswald, King of Northumbria, b. about 605,
d. 642.
Oswy, King of Northumbria, d. 670.
Penda, King of Mercia, d. 655.
Wulfhere, King of Mercia, d. 675.
^thelbald, King of Mercia, b. 716, d. 757.
Offa, King of Mercia, d. 795.
Ine, King of the West Saxons, d. 728.
Egbert, King of the West Saxons, afterwards
" Overlord " of England, b. about 775,
d. 838.
Charles Martel, King of the Franks, b.
about 689, d. 741.
Pepin, King of the Franks, father of Charle-
magne, b. 714, d. 768.
Charlemagne, King of the Franks, b. 742,
d. 814.
Haroun Al Rashid, Khalif of Bagdad, b.
763, d. 809.
Gregory I., called "The Great," Pope, d. 605.
St. Augustine, first Archbishop of Canter-
bury, d. 605.
Paulinus, first Archbishop of York, d. 644.
St. Aidan, d. 651.
St. Cuthbert, d. 687.
Bede, called "The Venerable Bede," b. 672,
d. 735.
Csedmon, the Saxon poet, died about 680.
Mahomet, the Arabian. Prophet, b. 570, d. 632.
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE PERIOD DESCRIBED IN THIS
CHAPTER.
597- St. Augustine lands in Kent.
626. Conversion of Northumbria.
632. Death of Mahomet.
636. Aidan settles in Holy Island.
655. Battle of Windwid Field. Death of
Penda.
670. Oswy, King of Northumbria, dies.
681. Wilfrid of York converts the South
Saxons.
685. Defeat and death of Egfrith of
Northumbria at Nectansmere.
687. Death of Cuthbert.
732. Defeat of Saracens by Charles Martel
at the battle of Tours.
735. Death of the Venerable Bede.
752. Battle of Burford, between Mercia and
Wessex.
787. First landing of the Danes in England.
800. Egbert becomes King of Wessex.
Charlemagne, King of the Franks,
crowned Emperor of the West.
823. Battle of Ellandune, between the Mer-
cians and the West Saxons.
827. Mercia and Northumbria subdued by
Egbert.
Egbert becomes " Overlord " of England.
832. Danes land in Isle of Sheppey.
835- Egbert defeats Danes at Hengestdown.
Gregory and the Angels.
"Non Angli sed Angeli.'
IT is no longer to the British parts of the island that we must now
turn our attention, but to the new Saxon kingdoms which were growing
up in the south and west, and which were to become the foundation 01
modern England as we know it. The first to be noticed in point of
time, though not in point of importance, is the little kingdom of Kent,
in the south-eastern corner of the island.
The history of the kingdom of Kent, as we know it, is a very short
one ; but, though short, it has the greatest possible importance for our
country. In a previous chapter we read that the Saxons, when they first
became masters of England, were heathens, and that they worshipped
gods named Woden, Thor, Freia ; but the name of these gods is but a
memory among us, and for centuries England has been a Christian land.
We have now to read how it was that the pagan Saxons learnt the
ctory of Jesus Christ, cast aside their old heathen religions, and became
Christians. It is a very beautiful and interesting story, and it is well
to tell it as nearly as possible in the very words of those who were living
at the time when the change took place, and who wrote down what
they saw with their own eyes and heard with their own ears.
The Romans, as we know, had introduced Christianity into England,
but with the departure of the Romans and the arrival of the Saxons
GREGORY AND THE ANGELS.
and the other heathen tribes, the Roman churches were destroyed,
the Britons who had become Christians were put to death, or driven
to take refuge in Wales or Ireland. England under its new masters
once more became a heathen land. We shall learn how Christian
teachers from Rome landed a second time in England, and a second
time set to work to convert the heathen whom they found there.
In the city of Rome, about the year 580, there lived a. great and good
man named Gregory, a monk.
One day Gregory was
walking in the streets of
Rome, and, as he walked,
he came to the market-place
where slaves were sold ; for
at that time, and for many
hundreds of years after-
wards, men, women, and
children were often sold as
slaves both in Rome and
other places. Among the
many slaves were some
little children from that part
of England which was then
called " Deira," but which we
now call "Yorkshire." They
were fair-haired children,
their faces were beautiful,
and their skins were
whiter than those of the
little Roman children who
had become browned with the heat of the warm sun of Italy.
When Gregory saw the little English children, he went up and asked
from what country they came. He was told that they came from the
island of Britain. Then he asked whether the people of Britain were
heathens, or had become Christians. He was told that they were still
heathens. When Gregory heard this, he gave a deep sigh. " Alas /"
said he, " what a pity that such beautiful children as these should come from
a land where men have not yet learnt about Christ." Then he asked what
was the name of the nation to which the children belonged. He was
told that it was the nation of the Angles. " Rightly are they so called"
said Gregory, "/or they have the faces of angels."
Then Gregory made up his mind that the Angles should be taught
the story of Christ, and after he became Pope (590), he looked about
c*
GREGORY THE GREAT.'
42 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
him to find the best man whom he could send over as a. teacher or
missionary. The person whom he chose was named Augustine, who
now is often spoken of as Saint Augustine. Augustine lived in Rome,
and had never been in England ; but when he received the order from
Gregory to go, he went at once.
The Story of Augustine.
"My heart is inditing of a good matter: I speak of the things which I
have made unto the King." — Psalm xlv. i.
The story of Augustine, and how he came to England, is contained
in a book written by an Englishman. The name of this English-
man is Bede, a truly good and pious man. He was not alive at the
time when Augustine came over to England ; he was not born until
nearly a hundred years after Gregory had seen the little English children
in the market-place in Rome. But Bede may easily have heard the
story which he tells from those persons who really saw the things
happen about which he wrote. This is the story as it is written by
Bede, the Englishman.
At the time when Gregory sent Augustine to England, there
was a king in that part of our country which we now call Kent.
The name of this king was ^thelbert (560), and he had a wife
named Bertha. Now Bertha came from the land of the Franks
or, as we say now, from France, the land of the French. yEthelbert
himself was a heathen, but Bertha was a Christian, and the king, her
husband, allowed her to go to church and to keep her own religion.
If we look at the map of Kent, we shall see that in one corner of it
there is a part which is called "The Isle of Thanet." It is in the Isle of
Thanet that the towns of Margate, Ramsgate, and Broadstairs now are.
In our own day the Isle of Thanet is a part of the county of Kent, but
in the time of King /Ethelbert it was really an isle, or an island, for
there was a stream of water all round it, which separated it from the
west of Kent. This stream, which was called the Wantsum, began near
where the town of Sandwich now is, and ended near the place which is
marked on the map as The Reculvers. It was possible in the time of
/Ethelbert to sail all the way from Sandwich to The Reculvers. Now
there is no longer any stream there, but there is dry land instead.
It was in the island of Thanet that Augustine landed when he
THE STORY OF AUGUSTINE. 43
first came to England, more than thirteen hundred years ago. Before
he landed, he sent a messenger to King yEthelbert to ask leave to come
into his country. Perhaps the king would not have given him leave
if it had not been that his wife Bertha was already a Christian. But
Bertha, when she heard that Augustine was coming, was very pleased,
and she persuaded the king to receive him kindly.
There is a place in the county of Kent called Ebbsfleet. It was here
that Augustine, with forty companions, landed from the ship that
brought him to England (597). He did not at once go to King
/Ethelbert, but he sent one of his friends to tell the king that he had
brought him a most joyful message, and that he had come to tell
him about the true and living God.
When the. king got the message, he made up his mind that he
would go and hear what Augustine had to tell him. He went to the
Isle of Thanet, and sent for Augustine. He sat on a chair in the
open air when Augustine came. He would not go inside a house, for
he did not understand what this new teacher had come to tell him, and
he feared that there might be some plan to do him harm or to kill him ;
he would, therefore, only let Augustine speak to him out of doors.
Then Augustine, and those who were with him, came before the king.
As they came they sang and prayed, and then Augustine told the
king about the new religion and about the story of Christ.
The king heard him in silence, and when Augustine had finished
^Ethelbert said, " Your words and your promises are very fair ; but as they
are new to us, and as we are not certain what they mean, I cannot agree with
them now, nor can I give up the religion of my people . . „ but because
you have come to my kingdom from so far off, and because I believe that you
really mean to say what is right and to do what is good, I will be kind to
you, and will take care of you, and will let no one do you harm. If you can
make people believe you, I will not prevent you."
Then the king told Augustine that he might stay in the city of
Canterbury, which is in the county of Kent, and not very far off from
where Augustine had landed. So Augustine and his followers went to
the town of Canterbury, and there they built a church and lived for
some time, teaching and preaching to the people.
Soon the people began to find out that the strangers were good
men, and that they not only taught what was good, but that they lived
good and honest lives. Then many of the people began to believe the
words of Augustine, and to become Christians ; and before very long
/Ethelbert himself became a Christian, like his wife Bertha ; and in
a few years all the English people in the kingdom of ^Ethelbert became
Christians.
44 ' HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
This is the story of the coming of Augustine to England, and of his
teaching the religion of Christ to the English people. Canterbury was
the first place in which a church was set up, and to this day a great
cathedral stands in the city of Canterbury upon the place on which
Augustine and his companions from Rome first taught the story of
Christ thirteen hundred years ago.
King- Edwin, and the Conversion of Northumbria.
" It is reported that there was then such perfect peace in Britain, where-
soever the dominion of King Edwin extended, that a woman with her new-
born babe might walk throughout the island, from sea to sea, without
receiving any harm." — Chronicle of the Venerable Bede.
We now pass from the history of the little kingdom of Kent to that
of a larger and much more important division, namely, the kingdom of
Northumbria, which stretched from the H umber to the Firth of Forth,
and which has left its name in our own northern county of Northumber-
land. In the year 547 a Saxon chief of the name of Ida landed on the
east coast and established the kingdom of Bernicia, which stretched
from the Tees to the Firth of Forth. Forty-six years later (593), in the
reign of .ffithelfrith, the kingdom of Bernicia was united with the Saxon
kingdom of Deira — the modern Yorkshire — under the name of the
Kingdom of Northumbria. ^Ethelfrith, King of Northumbria, was a
heathen, and he was a great warrior. He led his armies against the
Britons, who still maintained themselves in the north of Britain ; he
destroyed their churches and killed their priests.
A story still remains of how he besieged the last army of the
Britons in the fortress of Chester (607), and how, in the massacre that
followed his victory, two thousand monks, fighting to the last on
behalf of their religion, were cut down without mercy. For the first
time the Saxons had established their dominion from sea to sea. It
seemed as if the cause of Thor and Woden .were about to triumph
finally over the cause of Christianity.
But only ten years before the capture of Chester, ^Ethelbert, King
of Kent, had accepted the teaching of St. Augustine, and ere another
twenty years had gone by the teaching of St. Augustine was acknow-
ledged by the successor of yEthelfrith, Edwin, the great King of
Northumbria.
KING EDWIN, AND THE CONVERSION OF NORTHUMBRIA. 45
In the year 617 ^thelfrith died, and was succeeded by his brother-
in-law, Edwin. A tie of marriage now united the kingdoms of Kent and
Northumbria. King Edwin married ^thelburga, the daughter of ^Ethel-
bert, King of Kent. It was Bertha, the wife of King ^Ethelbert, who
persuaded her husband to send for Augustine. In like manner, JEthel-
burga, who, like Bertha, was a Christian, now persuaded King Edwin
to send for a teacher who could tell him about the new religion. The
teacher whom Edwin sent for was called Paulinus, a friend and follower
of Augustine. Paulinus came and preached to the king and his
counsellors. Bede, who has given us the account of the coming of
Augustine, has also told us the story of how Paulinus came to the
court of King Edwin, and how the heathen King of Northumbria
accepted the new religion.
At the court of King Edwin there was a certain man called Coifi,
who was high in favour with the king, and was the high priest of the
country. When the high priest had heard what Paulinus had to tell,
he learnt that the gods in whom he had believed were false gods. He
went to King Edwin, and said to him, " O King, I advise you at once to
give up your false gods ; and I advise you, in order to show that you do not
believe in them any longer, to break the idols which stand in the te)nples, and
to burn the temples."
Then Edwin said that he would do as he was asked. " But who"
said King Edwin, " is the right person to break the idols and burn the
temples ? " Then the high priest said to the king, " There can be no
person more fit to do this thing than I myself."
Then Coifi mounted on a horse and fastened on a sword, and took
a spear and threw it against one of the temples. This was to show
that he no longer believed in the idol ; for, up to that time, no one had
been allowed to wear a sword or carry a spear when they went near a
temple. Then he set fire to the temples and threw down the idols and
broke them. And thus it was that Paulinus led Edwin to give up idols
and to believe in Christ (626).
For a time the people of Northumbria became Christians; but
the greater part of England still remained heathen.
46 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The Conversion of Mereia; or the Story of Aidan and
Cuthbert.
" The same year that King Eg f rid departed this life (685) he promoted
to the bishopric of the Church of Lindisfarne, the holy and venerable Cuthbert,
who had for many years led a solitary life in great continence of body and
mind, in a very small island called Fame, distant about nine miles from that
same Church, in the Ocean."— Chronicle of the Venerable Bede.
Among the parts which had not yet been reached by Christianity
was the great central kingdom of Mercia, of which it is now time to
speak. Mercia, the kingdom of the March, or Border, had been founded
by the Anglian tribes in the sixth century, about the time when
^Ethelbert was reigning in Kent. The name tells us that when the
Mercian kingdoms were first set up, the Britons were still in full posses-
sion of the centre of England ; for the men of the March were those who
lived on the borders of a hostile country. At the date we have now
reached, however (626), the Mercians were spreading over the whole
of the Midlands, and occupied the country which now comprises the
counties of Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Cheshire, Warwickshire, Herefordshire,
and some other counties. Under a king named Penda, the Mercians had
now become very powerful, and, free from all alarm on the side of the
Britons, they turned upon their kindred in the North, and invaded
Northumbria. Edwin of Northumbria, of whose conversion by Paulinus
we have just read, was killed in battle (633), and his people, deprived
of his example and encouragement, went back again for a time to
their old heathen beliefs, which, indeed, many of them had given up
only in name, and in obedience to the orders of the king.
Fortunately, Christian teachers of even greater power and influence
than Paulinus came to the rescue of Northumbria in these dark times.
The names of Aidan and Cuthbert will always be memorable in the history
of Christianity in the North of England. Both of them have received
the title of Saint, and many churches to this day preserve the names
of St. Aidan and of St. Cuthbert.
The life of St. Aidan has been written, and it is certain that few
people did more than he to convert the people of our country to
Christianity, as much, perhaps, as St. Augustine. Earnest and sincere,
he moved those with whom he had to do as much by the beauty and
d
z
< ^
3 •§
3 §
II
S3
^ ^
48
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
goodness of his life as by his preaching. We can judge what sort of
man he was from the pupils whom he taught.
Among these pupils was Oswald, King of Northumbria, who had
succeeded Edwin in 635. In his youth, Oswald had been driven out of
his country by King Edwin and had sought refuge in Scotland. There
he had found his way to the lonely cell of Columba, an Irish Christian,
who, having escaped
from persecution in
his own country, had
found refuge in the
little rocky island of
lona, off the coast
of Argyllshire.
Columba had
gathered round him
other missionaries
like himself, and it
is clear that Oswald
never forgot what
he saw and learnt
during his visit to
lona.
After he became
king, he sent to
Columba and beg-
ged him to choose
one of his monks to
come and teach the
people of Northum-
bria and to bring
them back, if pos-
sible, to the Chris-
tian religion which
they had forsaken.
Aidan was chosen
for the task. He came southward, and following the example of his
master Columba, settled on the little island of Lindisfarne, or Holy
Isle, just off the Northumberland coast. Thence he passed through
Northumbria teaching and preaching, and under his influence both
Northumbria and its king learnt to understand and believe in his
message.
Oswald himself became a pupil of Aidan, and an active helper in
THE INSIDE OF DURHAM CATHEDRAL, SHOWING
THE NORMAN PILLARS.
THE CONVERSION OF ME R CIA. 49
his work. Coming from a far-off country, the preacher could only
speak the language of the Scots, among whom he had lived. But
Oswald, too, had been among the Scots and knew their language. He
offered his services to Aidan as interpreter, and as Aidan preached, the
King translated into a language which the people could understand.
" It was delightful," says Bede, who wrote the life of Aidan, " to see the
King helping the preacher.''.'
Under the wise guidance of the new teachers Oswald's reign
prospered, and Northumbria recovered from the defeat and death of
Edwin. But as long as Penda, the fierce heathen King of Mercia,
lived, there was no real safety for Northumbria, nor, indeed, for any
Christian kingdom in England.
East Anglia (now the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk) had become
Christian. Penda marched into the land of the East Angles and slew
their king. Oswald hastened to the rescue, but in his turn was defeated
and killed in the battle which took place between the Northumbrians
and the Mercians (642). Once more Northumbria was overrun by the
Mercians, but once again under its new king, Oswy, it regained strength,
till at last fortune turned in favour of the Christian army, and the
Mercians were defeated, with terrible loss, in the battle of Winwid
Field, near Leeds (655). Penda himself fell in the battle. Enough is
known about him to show that he was really a great man, and his
name still lives in more than one English place name.
The work of Aidan was continued by Cuthbert, who also lived at
Lindisfarne, or Holy Isle. As a teacher and preacher, his fame was
even greater than that of Aidan, and the stories of his goodness
and of the wonderful things which he did have come down to us from
the time in which he lived. He died in the year 687, and was buried
at Dunelm (now called Durham), where the stately cathedral church of
St. Cuthbert still commemorates the life and work of the great
Northumbrian teacher.
50 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Offa, King- of Mereia, and the Rise of the West Saxons0
" /, Offa, King of the Mercians, have sealed with the seal of the Cross,
this my aforesaid gift. " — From a Charter of grant of land, by King Offa to the
Church of St. Andrew, Rochester. —
We must now leave Northumbria, and return for a while to the
Midland kingdom. Northumbria never recovered its full power after
the death of King Oswy (670), and as its influence declined, that of
Mereia grew. Wulfhere, a Christian, a son of Penda, became king.
Under his leadership the Northumbrians were defeated, and Mereia was
freed from the authority of the Northumbrian king who had claimed
the right to interfere with its government ever since the death of
Penda. Wulfhere extended his kingdom to the south and west,
and Mereia took without dispute the first place among the English
kingdoms. While the fortunes of Mereia grew brighter, those of
Northumbria faded. In the year 685, Egfrith, King of Northumbria,
marched against his Northern enemies, the Picts in Scotland, but in a
terrible battle at Nectansmere, in what is now the county of Fife, he
was slain, and his army destroyed. Thus ended the once - powerful
Northumbrian kingdom.
For a hundred and sixty years Mercia remained the first among
the English kingdoms under its kings, of whom the greatest were
^thelbald and Offa. Offa, King of the Mercians, has been dead and
buried for hundreds of years: but though he has been dead so long,
his name is hot yet forgotten in England, and this is how it came to be
remembered.
When Offa was King of Mercia, he fought a great many battles
with the Welsh. Sometimes he marched with his army into Wales, and
sometimes the Welsh, in their turn, marched into his country. At last
Offa made up his mind that the Welsh should come into his country no
longer, and, in order to keep them out, he set his people to work to dig
a long ditch and to build a wall of earth between his own kingdom of
Mercia and Wales.
This long ditch stretched all the way from the River Dee, which
is in the county of Cheshire, to the River Wye, which runs into the
mouth of the Severn, in the county ot Monmouth.
The great ditch was called " Offa's Dyke" or " Offa's Ditch."
Years went by. Offa. himself died and his kingdom disappeared ; but
OFF A, AND THE RlSE OF THE WEST SAXONS.
to this day part of the work which he did still remains. There are
places where the ditch and the wall of earth can "still be seen, and
English people living in Shropshire or in Herefordshire at this very
day can walk along the bank which Offa, King of the Mercians,
built, and which bears his name.
The fame of King Offa was known not only in his own country but
on the continent of Europe, and he appears to have been treated as an
equal in rank by Charles, King of the
Franks, who is generally known in
history as Charlemagne, and who was
at that time at the height of his power
in his great kingdom, which extended
over half of France and half of Ger-
many. But on Offa's death the power
of Mercia soon came to an end, for in
823, Beornwulf was defeated in battle
by a new enemy, Egbert, King of the
West Saxons, who only two or three
years later won another victory over
the Mercians under Wiglaf.
We must look once more upon the
map to see where the kingdom of the
West Saxons lay. It is the fourth of
the Saxon kingdoms whose fortunes
we have had to follow, and its history
is of special importance because it is
from Wessex that there came at last a
king who was to unite all the English
kingdoms under his rule.
It must not be supposed that the
kingdom of Wessex suddenly sprang
into existence at the time of King
Wiglaf of Mercia. Wessex, or the king-
dom of the West Saxons, had, indeed,
been founded three hundred and six years before — in the year 519 —
by a king of the name of Cerdic, and several kings had succeeded
Cerdic during the two hundred and sixty-six years between his death
(534) and the days of Egbert. Of these West Saxon kings p-me record
still remains to us. The most famous of them was Ine, who reigned
from 688 to 726, and who drew up a code of laws for the West Saxons
of which a copy still exists. He died 728.
It was in the year 800 that Egbert became King of Wessex. His
A " NORTHMAN."
52 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
life before he became king had been one of misfortune, for he had
been exiled from his country, and compelled to take refuge at the court
of Offa, King of Mercia. Thence he had been compejled to fly a
second time to the Continent, where he put himself under the pro-
tection of Charles the Great, King of the Franks. At that time
Charles was engaged in conquering the Prankish and German king-
doms, which he at length formed into one great kingdom or empire.
Perhaps Egbert was moved by the example of Charlemagne, for no
sooner had he come to the throne of Wessex than he set to work to
win over or subdue the other kings of England, and to make him-
self master of the whole country.
He first fought against the kings of Kent, Essex, and Sussex, and
joined their kingdoms to his own. He then turned his arms against
Mercia, which he compelled to submit to him after the Mercians
had been defeated at the great battle of Ellandune, in Wiltshire
(823). In the west he conquered the district now known as the
county of Devon, and added it to Wessex. The Britons, or Welsh,1
as the Saxons called them, were driven into Cornwall and the river
Tamar was fixed as their boundary.
There now only remained the kingdom of Northumbria outside
the dominion of Egbert ; but Northumbria was no longer strong
enough to fight against so powerful an enemy as the King of Wessex,
and the Northumbrians, of their own accord, submitted to Egbert,
who thus became the first king or " Overlord " of all England (827)
CHAPTER V.
THE NORTHMEN
837—871.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE PERIOD DESCRIBED IN
THIS CHAPTER.
/EthelWUlf, King of Wessex, son of Egbert, ! Alfred, son of ^Ethelwulf, b. 849, afterwards
d. 858.
JEthelbald, King of Wessex, son of
wulf, d. 860.
, King of Wessex, son of /Ethel-
wulf. d. 866.
essex, son of ^Ethelwulf,
d. 871.
King of Wessex
Swithin (St. Swithin), Bishop of Winchester,
d. 861.
Hasting, a Danish chief.
RuriC, a Danish chief, d. 879.
1 The name Welsh means " foreigner."
THE COMING OF THE DANES.
53
PRINCIPAL EVENTS WHICH OCCURRED IN THE PERIOD
DESCRIBED IN THIS CHAPTER.
841. The Danes under Hasting, land in Nor-
mandy.
849. King Alfred born.
851. The Danes capture and pillage Canter-
bury and London.
Battle at Ockley, Surrey.
855. Alfred visits Rome.
858. Death of ^thelwulf.
860. Death of ./Ethelbald.
The Danes attack Winchester.
861. Death of Swithin, Bishop of Win-
Chester.
861. Ruric, the Dane, lands in Russia, and
founds the ancient Royal family ol
Russia.
866. Death of ^Ethelbert.
867. The Danes take York, and conquer
Northumbria.
868. ^Ethelred and Alfred make peace with
the Danes at Nottingham.
870. The Danes kill Edmund (St. Edmund),
King of East Anglia.
871. The Danes defeated at Ashdown.
Death of ^Ethelred.
The Coming- of the Danes.
" When Denmark's raven soar'd on high
Triumphant through Northumbria's sky
And the broad shadow of her wing
Blacken'd each cataract and spring."
Scott : " Ro/teby," canto iv.
WE have just read above how Egbert, King of Wessex, became
master of the other English kingdoms; but the rule of Wessex
was not long to remain undisputed, and the Saxons who had so
long fought among themselves, were now to be brought face to face
with a common enemy, who threatened to treat them as their
ancestors three hundred and seventy years before had treated the
Britons.
These new enemies were the Danes, a people whose name from
this time forward becomes very closely connected with the history
of England. The peninsula of Denmark stands out from the
northern coast of Europe ; its most northern point is on a level
with the city of Aberdeen, and its western shore can be reached
in thirty-six hours' steaming from the mouth of the Tyne.
The Danes of our day are a sturdy and industrious people, not
unlike Englishmen in appearance, and speaking a Scandinavian
language which is not altogether unlike the language of the Eastern
Lowlands of Scotland.
It was this land of Denmark that gave its name to the new
invaders who appeared in England in the time of King Egbert. But
54 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
it was not from Denmark only — nor, indeed, principally — that the
Danes came. Many of them came from further north — from the
Fjords of the wild Norwegian coast — and hence, in the histories
of the time, we constantly find them spoken of as the Northmen. The
THE " KEELS OF THE NORTHMEN.
Northmen, or Danes, were great sailors. The country in which they
lived was wild and bare, and it is not wonderful that they longed to
sail over the sea to some richer land than their own. They were a
cruel but brave people, fierce in war and eager for plunder.
Each year parties of them sailed further and further from home,
and it was not long before some of their ships reached the coast of
THE COMING OF THE DANES. 55
England (787). They -first appeared in Northumbria, in the reign
of ^Ethelred (794), and from that time forward their visits continued
during many years.
They soon found that England was a richer and pleasanter
country than their own, and their first thought when they landed
was to kill the English, to take from them all they possessed, and
to sail back again with the plunder they had taken. Ship after ship
sailed across the sea, and soon the English began to know too well
the vessels of their terrible enemies. When they saw the Danish
ships coming they fled from their homes into the woods, or took
refuge in some strong town.
Soon the Danes began to act on a new plan. They no longer
came only to plunder and to sail away again, but they stopped in
England and made their homes there. Their Long-ships sailed into
all the rivers on the east side of England ; and when the .Northmen
had landed, they built forts to protect themselves, and marched against
the English, destroying their towns, killing all who could not escape,
and taking cattle and everything of value they could find.
It must have been a terrible sight for the English to see the Danish
" Long-ships," or " Keels" as they came up into the river-mouth. At
the front of each great ship was a tall prow, which was often made into
the figure of a dragon or of some other fierce animal. On the mast was
spread a broad painted sail, which swelled with the east wind as the
ship swept through the water. If the wind blew off the land, the ship
was driven forward by the long rows of oars on either side, worked by
the strong arms of fifty rowers. On the outside hung the bright shields
of the Danes, and in the ship itself could be seen the fierce Northmen
armed with their heavy axes and spears, and with their standards in
their midst. The standards themselves seemed to tell of the fierce,
cruel men who bore them. Sometimes they were in the form of a raven
or an eagle, sometimes of a serpent or dragon, sometimes of a bear or
wolf. No wonder that the fear of the Danes was great, and that the
news of their coming spread terror through the land.
Nor was it only to England that the Danes came. Some of them
sailed to the north, round the coasts of Scotland, till they came to
Ireland. Others sailed away to the south until they came to France.
There they landed and set up a kingdom of their own.
We must not forget about these Northmen who sailed to the south
and landed in France, because we shall read about them again further
on. When we come to them, we shall find they are called, not Northmen,
but Normans ; and when we read the story of the Normans, we must
remember who they were and where they came from.
56 Jf is TORY OF ENGLAND.
But the Northmen of whom we are now to read are those who came
to England, not those who went to France. It was in the time of
King Egbert that the Danes or* Northmen began to come to the south
of England; but it was not till the time of Egbert's son, ^Sthelwulf
(837), that they came in great numbers. It was in his day that the
Danes sailed up the River Thames and plundered London (851). This
was a great blow to the English, and they determined to try and get
rid of their terrible enemies once for all. King ^Ethelwulf marched
against them with a large army, and a fierce battle was fought at a
place called Ockley, in Surrey. The Danes were beaten, and for a
time it seemed as if England would be freed from them.
But, alas ! this was not to be. More ships came across the sea ; and
this time the Danes found friends among the Welsh, who were only too
glad to find some one to help them against their old enemies the
English.
From this time, for more than a hundred years, the history of
England is full of stories of battles with the Danes and of accounts of
the misery and suffering of the people of England. It seems strange
that Danes and English should have been such bitter enemies, for
really they belonged almost to the same people. They both came from
the northern part of Europe, and the Danes spoke a language not very
unlike that which was spoken by the English.
But, by the time of King ^Ethelwulf, the English were very different
from what they had been when their forefathers first landed in England.
They were Christians, and, moreover, had ceased to be wandering
tribes. They had become rich and settled, and had already learnt to
make good laws and to live at peace among each other.
But the Northmen who now came over the sea were still heathen.
They cared for no laws, they wandered from place to place in search
of plunder, and they knew neither pity nor justice. So great was the
terror of the Danes among the English, that it became the custom to
put into. the prayers which were offered up in the churches this prayer :
" From the fury of the Northmen, good Lord deliver us."
57
CHAPTER VI.
THE REIGN OF KING ALFRED.
871-901.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF
KING ALFRED.
Alfred, son of iEthelwulf, b. 849, became
king 871, d. 901.
AlCS With, wife of Alfred, m. 868.
Guthniin, a Danish chief, d. 890.
Hasting, a Danish chief.
-dEthelred, alderman of Mercia.
eda ("The Lady of the Mercians"),
daughter of Alfred, wife of ^Ethelred.
Charles III., " The Fat,' King of France,
d. 888.
Charles IV., " The Simple," King of France.
Asser, the historian of King Alfred.
RollO, a Danish leader, afterwards Duke of
Normandy.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE PERIOD DESCRIBED IN
THIS CHAPTER.
871. Alfred becomes king of Wessex.
876. Rollo captures Rouen.
879. Peace of Wedmore.
897. Alfred builds a navy.
901. Death of Alfred.
Alfred, the "Truth-Teller."
"In the whole of the kingdom the poor, beside him, had few or no
protectors. "
"So long as I have lived I have striven to Hue worthily . I desire to leave
the men who come after me a remembrance of me in good works. "
A sser : V Life of A Ifnd. "
Now that we know something of this terrible people, we must go
back to the story of the English, and learn how a great Englishman
arose who saved his country in a time of trouble, and who prevented
the Danes from becoming masters of the whole of England.
The name of this great Englishman is Alfred.
King Alfred (871) was the youngest son of .ffithelwulf, King of Wessex.
He was born in the year 849, which is over a thousand years ago. When
he was young, no one ever thought that he would become king, for his
three brothers all had a right to come to the throne before him. But
it so happened that though each of his three brothers became king
in turn, each of them died a very short time after he had come to
the throne. And so, after all, Alfred became King of the West Saxons.
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
We must remember that Egbert, King of the West Saxons, who was
Alfred's grandfather, had made himself king over very nearly the whole
of England ; but between the time when Egbert was king, and the time
when Alfred came to the throne, there had been a great change ; for it
was during this time that the Danes had begun to come in large
numbers into England. They had become so powerful and so
numerous, that Alfred, when he came to the throne, instead of being a
powerful king like his grandfather Egbert, had for many years to fight
hard for his own life, and to protect his own kingdom of Wessex. We
shall see how bravely he fought, and how in the end he gained a great
victory.
But before we come to the story of
Alfred's success, we must learn something
about his early days, and how it was that
he overcame the difficulties and dangers
by which he and his country were sur-
rounded, and became at last victorious.
It is truly said that "the boy is father to
the man " ; and in order to understand the
character of any man or woman, it is
necessary to know something of how their
character was formed in youth.
Fortunately we know far more about
the early years of King Alfred than we
do about those of any of the Saxon kings
before his time. Although he lived more
than a thousand years ago, books were
written in his time which tell us truly what
he did, what he said, and what he learnt. Some of these books were
written by the hand of Alfred himself, for he was a great scholar in
times when scholarship was rare. It seems strange nowadays to
think that any grown-up person, especially such a person as a king,
should not be able to read and write easily, but in the days of King
Alfred very few could read or write ; and there have even been kings
of England at a much later time who, though they were great soldiers
and men of much ability, could not write their own names. But
Alfred learnt to read and write when he was quite young, and was
always a great lover of books.
Alfred also learnt as he grew up many other useful things. He had a
tutor who taught him to read books. This tutor's name was Swithin,
the Bishop of Winchester. The name of Swithin, or St. Swithin, still
sounds very familiar in our ears. The i5th day of July is called "St.
A HARP OF THE NINTH
CENTURY.
ALFRED'S DEFEATS AND VICTORIES, 59
Swithin' s Day" and there is a saying that if it rains on St. Swithin's Day,
there will be forty wet days to follow. There are probably few people
who talk of St. Swithin nowadays who know that he was a real person,
and was the tutor who taught King Alfred when he was a young man.
But Swithin taught his pupil other things which were more useful to
him than book-learning. He taught him to be true and just in all his
dealings, to love what was right, and to speak the truth. There is one
name by which Alfred was called both by his friends and his enemies.
It is a name which should not be forgotten, for it was one of the greatest
and most honourable names that could be given to a king or to any other
man. He was called "Alfred the Truth- Teller.'"
In many other ways besides those which have been mentioned,
Alfred fitted himself for the battle of life while he was young. There
is a proverb which tells us that " home-keeping youths have ever
homely wits," and undoubtedly those who stay at home and never
travel will learn little of what is going on in the world, and are
sometimes very ignorant. Travel is always good for those who know
how to travel wisely, and a knowledge of how other people live, and of
what is going on in foreign countries, is useful to anyone, especially to
one who has to be a king.
When he was quite young, Alfred travelled on the Continent.
He visited France, where he met many learned and wise men, and
where he learnt much which was afterwards of value to him. He was
skilled in various accomplishments. We have already seen that he
loved to read and write, and knew Latin well. He was fond of music,
and learnt to play upon the harp. Nor did he forget to learn those
things which strengthened his body as well as those which improved,
strengthened, and instructed his mind. He practised shooting with the
bow, he learnt how to use the sword, how to ride, and how to hunt.
In such stormy times of war and danger as those in which Alfred lived,
it was, above all, necessary that the king should be brave and active,
a warrior able to lead his people in battle. A master of all these
accomplishments, Alfred grew up strong, brave, and wise, and in every
way fitted to be a king.
Alfred's Defeats and Victories.
" The darkest hour comes before the dawn."
It was fortunate that Alfred had learnt the work of a soldier while he
was still young, for it was not long before he had plenty of fighting to
60 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
do. Before he reached the age of twenty-two his three elder brothers,
JEthelbald, -Sthelbert and ^thelred, had died, and Alfred was called to
the throne of Wessex. It seemed, indeed, a misfortune for the West
Saxons that at the time when a great and growing danger threatened
them, their king should be little more than a boy. For indeed the
time was one of great peril.
The Danes, who for a while had been beaten back, began to come
over in larger numbers than ever. Their Long-ships sailed into every
river along the east coast of England, and into many harbours on the
south coast. They made themselves masters of Northumbria and
Mercia, and Alfred had not been king more than a month when they
marched against his own kingdom of Wessex. It seemed as if all
England would fall into the power of the Danes. Alfred, alone with
the people of Wessex, was left to fight against them.
Many battles were fought. Sometimes Alfred was victorious, some-
times the Danes were victorious. But at last the Danes became so
numerous that Alfred's soldiers no longer dared to face them, and they
either fled or made submission to the Danish chiefs. Alfred, deserted
by his army, was forced to take refuge in flight from his fierce enemies.
For a long time he lived with a few of his most faithful followers in
the marshes near Athelney, in Somerset. At last, in order to escape
being taken and killed by the Danes, he was obliged to dress himself up
as a peasant, and to serve a shepherd who lived in a little hut among
the marshes of Athelney.
It is at this period of Alfred's life that the famous story is told of
King Alfred and the cakes. The shepherd's wife little suspected who
the forsaken stranger that did the humble work of the homestead really
was. One day she bade the king watch a batch of cakes that were
being cooked before the fire. He was to be sure not to forget to turn
them from time to time, so that they might not become burnt. But
Alfred's thoughts were far away. He was shaping a bow, and thinking
of the day when he might once more lead his West Saxons into battle.
The shepherd's wife returned, and finding her precious cakes burned
and spoiled, gave her unhappy servant a sound rating and a beating
for his negligence. To such a strait had the king been brought.
It seemed as if all hope of Alfred ever regaining his throne were
gone, but better days were in store. While the king was hiding in the
shepherd's hut, the Danes advanced into Devonshire, the next county
to Somerset. The Devonshire men met them and beat them. When
Alfred heard that the Devonshire men had been victorious, he came out
of his hiding-place, and calling together his friends, he once more put
himself at the head of the people of Wessex,
62 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Many fierce battles were again fought between the English and the
Danes, and with varying fortune. One great battle was fought near
Uffington, in Berkshire. The English won the day, and when the fight
was over, Alfred's soldiers thought they would make some mark which
for ever afterwards would remind people of the battle.
The hills near Uffington are made of white chalk, and on top of the
chalk there is fine, short green grass. The soldiers 'drew out upon the
grass the figure of a great horse. Then they cut away all the turf up to
the edge of the figure of the horse, so that the white chalk underneath
showed through. In this way they made a big white picture of a horse,
which could be seen upon the hillside from a long way off. It is now a
thousand years since Alfred's soldiers first cut the white horse in the
turf after their battle with the Danes. But ever since that time the
white horse has been taken care of, and the grass has been kept from
growing over it, so that it is still white and clear. And now in our own
day, as we travel by train from London to Exeter, if we look out of the
window between Didcot and Swindon,we can still see the " white horse"
high up on the hillside. The valley below is called the " Vale of White
Horse " up to this very day.
At length, both sides, weary of the strife, agreed to make peace. The
Danes on their part promised to leave Alfred in undisturbed possession
of his kingdom of Wessex, while the king on his side gave up the greater
portion of England north of the Ouse to the new-comers. Guthrum, the
principal Danish chieftain, was baptised and became a Christian. A
Saxon chief or Alderman,1 named ^Ethelred, who had married Alfred's
daughter, whose name was .Sthelfleda, was made governor of the
southern part of Mercia.2
England's First Navy, and the Work and Wisdom of
King- Alfred.
"This year died Alfred, the son of /Etheluuulf, six days before the
Mass of All Saints. He was King over the whole English nations, except
that part which was under the dominion of the Danes ; and he held the
kingdom one year and a half less than thirty years." — "Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle.'''
But it was a bad plan to trust the Danes ; their promises were only
made to be broken. Moreover, the fresh invaders who kept coming
1 Alderman or " Eldermai."
2 This arrangement was called the " Peace ofWedmore."
ENGLAND'S FIRST NAVY.
over the sea cared nothing for the promise which had been made
by those of their countrymen who were already in England, and they
altogether refused to be bound by them. It was not long, therefore,
before war broke out again. The Danish fleet sailed down the Channel
and came up the river Exe as far as Exeter. They were there defeated ;
but the victorious Saxons could profit little by their victory, for the
enemy, retiring to his ships, sailed away and was safe.
Alfred was not slow to learn the lesson which was thus taught him.
He perceived that as long as the Danes were masters of the sea, there
was no hope of ending the war, for the long-ships of the enemy could
always move from point to point by sea more rapidly than his own
armies could move by land.
Moreover, if the Saxon
troops arrived in time to
prevent a landing, or to
defeat an invading force as
they had done at Exeter,
they were quite powerless
to prevent their enemies
from taking to sea again
and landing at some other
point of the coast to burn
and pillage. It was plain
to Alfred that, in order to
succeed, he must fight the
Danes with their own
AN ANGLO-SAXON SHIP.
(From an old drawing.)
weapons.
Eleven centuries before,
in the long wars between the Romans and the Carthaginians, the
Romans, whose armies were invincible on land, found themselves at
the mercy of an enemy whom they despised, but whose fleets, never-
theless, commanded the sea. The Romans were no sailors, but
they determined that they would have a fleet. Hundreds of galleys
were commenced, and while the ships were being built, the crews,
seated on benches, practised on land the art of rowing, and the
methods of fighting which they were to put into force as soon as they
went to sea. Their efforts were rewarded. The Carthaginian fleets
were driven from the Roman coasts, the Romans pursued the Car-
thaginians to their own city, defeated them by sea and by land, and
destroyed the city of Carthage itself.
It may be that King Alfred remembered the history of the Roman
fleet, for we have seen that he was a Latin scholar ; but, be that as it
64 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
may, he followed the Roman example. Ships were built, sailors were
trained, and the Danes for the first time were beaten on the water.
They could no longer disappear without fear of being followed, or move
with greater rapidity than the Saxons. For the first time in our history
an English fleet was master of the English Channel, and as long as it
remained master of the Channel England was safe from an attack.
What was true a thousand years ago has been true at all times in our
history, and is true at this day. It may be indeed said that Alfred was
the first ruler of England who learnt and put into practice the truth
that the safety of England depends upon her fleet, and that the real
protectors of our country are our sailors.
Hitherto we have spoken of Alfred's reign as one of war and fighting
only. But it would be a great mistake to suppose that Alfred was
nothing more than a great soldier. While it was his first duty to
protect his people, he never forgot the duties of peace-time. He drew
up a code of laws, and, what was even more important, he caused the
laws to be plainly written down, so that those who had to obey them
might know what they were. He invited to his Court wise and learned
men from other countries, from Paris and from Rome, and he used
their knowledge for the benefit of his people. To him we owe the
beginning of what may be called the first history of England, the
famous Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a work which was commenced at this
time, and which, happily, still exists, and is the source from which we
learn most of what is known of the events which took place in the later
Anglo-Saxon times.
Alfred himself was active in good works. He was the author of
various books, he wrote poetry, he translated famous Latin books into
English, he began a translation of the Bible, which, however, was never
finished. Diligent in his work, he was unwilling to waste the time he
found too short for what he had to do. To measure the hours appointed
for each task he set himself, he caused a candle to be made to tell him
the time in a day when watches and clocks were unknown. The candle,
we are told, was made in different colours or bands, dividing it into
equal parts, and in every hour, one such part was burnt away, and
thus the king noted the passing of the hours. Such are some of the
stories which have come down to us of this great king. We know
enough of him and his life to be sure that the honour in which he was
held by those of his own day was not misplaced, and that the title
which was given to him in later days was one which truly described
him, and that men had reason to speak of him as "Alfred the Great."
Other titles he also bore which, perhaps, tell us even more of his
greatness, and of the reasons why he was beloved. We still speak of
FROM EDWARD THE ELDER 10 EDWARD THE MARTYR. 65
him as " Alfred the Great," but his people also spoke of him as "Alfred
England's Comfort," and "Alfred the Truth-teller."
He died at Winchester, the capital city of his kingdom of Wessex, in
the year 901, at the age of 52.
CHAPTER VII.
THE ENGLISH KINGS FROM EDWARD "THE ELDER
EDWARD "THE MARTYR."
901—979.
TO
FAMOUS PERSONS VvHO LIVED IN THE PERIOD DESCRIBED IN
THIS CHAPTER.
Edward the Elder, son of Alfred, became
King of the English 901, d. 925.
Athelstan, son of Edward the Elder, became
King of the English 925, d. 940.
Edmund. I., brother of Athelstan, son of
Edward the Elder, became King of
the English 940, d. 946.
Edred, brother of Edmund, son of Edward
the Elder, became King of the Eng-
lish 946, d. 955.
Edwy, son of Edmund, became King of the
English 955, d. 959.
Elgiva, wife of Edwy.
Idgar, brother of Edwy, son of Edmund,
became King of England 959,
d. 975-
first wife of Edgar, mother of
Edward.
second wife of Edgar, mother of
^Ethelred.
Edward (" The Martyr ") son of Edgar,
became King 975, murdered, 979.
JEthelfleda ("Lady oi the Mercians"),
daughter of Alfred, wife of ^Ethelred,
of Mercia, 919.
Cbarles IV. ("The Simple"), King of
France.
RollO, Duke of Normandy (under the title of
Robert).
Henry I. ("Henry the Fowler "), Emperor of
Germany, b 876, d. 936
DUB Stan, Archbishop of Canterbury, b. 925.
1'KIXCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE PERIOD DESCRIBED IN THIS
CHAPTER.
911. Edward defeats the Danes.
Rollo becomes Duke of Normandy, and
is baptised at Rouen.
917. ^Ethelfleda takes Derby from the Danes.
9*5. Death of Edward the Elder.
Landing of the Danes in Ireland.
926. The Margravate of Brandenburg, after-
wards the kingdom of Prussia, loundcd
by " Hen»y the Fowler."
937. Battle of Brunanburgh.
940. D'ath of Athelstan.
943. Dunstan made Abbot of Glastonbury.
946. Murder of Edmund.
955. Death of Edred.
956. Banishment ot Dunstan.
959. Death of Edwy.
961. Dunstan made Archbishop ot Canter-
bury.
963. Edgar invades Wales.
979. Death of Kdward " the Martyr."
66 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Edward the Elder— The Normans in France,
". . . the same forces which merged the Dane in the Englishman told
even more powerfully on the Dane in France. No race has ever shewn a
greater power of absorbing all the nobler characteristics of the people with
whom they came in contact, or of infusing their own energy into them."
Green: "History of the English People."
ON Alfred's death, his son Edward (901) came to the throne. Edward
is known to us as Edward the Elder, and is so called to distinguish
him from another King Edward, who lived a hundred and fifty years
later, and whose history we shall read. Edward the Elder proved a worthy
successor to his father. He continued the war against the Danes, and
was frequently victorious. He received valuable aid from his sister,
-ffithelfleda, whose husband, /Ethelred, the Alderman of the Mercians,
was now dead, ^thelfleda soon became a well-known figure in the
National War. Clad in armour, with a sword in her hand, and
mounted on a white horse, she herself led the Mercian troops into
battle. She was known to her people as " The Lady of the Mercians,"
and she bore herself as a worthy daughter of her father, King Alfred.
Not content with defeating the Danes in battle, .Ethelfleda had the
wisdom to guard against their return when lapse of time and help from
across the sea should have made them strong enough to renew the
attack. She built a line of castles and fortresses along the northern
frontier of her Mercian kingdom, and provided regular garrisons, ready
to take the field in case of war.
So successful were Edward and his sister in breaking the power of
the Danes, that the latter, for the first time, began to settle down in the
country which they had conquered, and to give up the thought of
further invasion. The border of the country occupied by the Danes,
which was known as the " Danelagh," was marked by the five principal
towns or boroughs, as they were called, and which arc now known as
Lincoln, Derby, Leicester, Stamford, and Nottingham.
Ereecl for a time from the fear of Danish invasion, Edward the
Elder turned his arms against the Welsh, the Scots, and against
those parts of Strathclyde, and what had been formerly the kingdom
of Northumbria, which still refused to admit his authority. On the
death of ^Ethelfleda he added Mercia to his kingdom, and took the
title of King, or Over-lord of England. In 925 Edward died, and
was succeeded by his son Athelstan,
THE NORMANS IN FRANCE. 67
And here we must leave the history of England for a space, ir
order to follow the fortunes of those Danes whom Edward's victories
and the terror of his arms had driven from our shores. It must not
be supposed that because for a time the field of plunder was closed
to them in England, the Northmen were content to stay in their
own country. When they found that they could no longer land in
England, and plunder and burn as they had been accustomed to do,
they turned their boats to sea again, and sailed away to lands where
conquest was easier and spoil more plentiful. Some, passing round
the north coast of Scotland, reached the east coast of Ireland ; others,
sailing southward, landed on the north coast of France. We shall
hear something more at a later stage of those who sailed to the
north. Of those who sailed to the south, something must be said here.
At the head of these rovers was a chief named Rolf, known to
his followers and in history as "Rolf the Ganger." The name of Rolf
is still known in our day ; in its commoner forms of Ralph or Rollo it
is familiar to us. The story runs that Rolf the Ganger was so-called
on account of his great stature ; so tall was he, that when he rode
on a horse his feet touched the ground on either side, and he was
forced to gang, or " go on foot." From which story we may learn two
things : in the first place, that the horses on which Rolf the Ganger
and his comrades rode were very small ones — more like ponies than
horses. No doubt they were like the little Shetland ponies which
children ride. These small horses are still commonly used in
Norway, and we can well imagine Rolf's long legs touching the
ground as he bestrode one of these tiny animals.
In the second place, we may learn that the language which these
Northmen talked was not unlike the language which is still talked
in some parts of England and Scotland.
A Yorkshire man or a Southern Scot still talks of "gang" and
"ganging" instead of "go" and "going" and to them the name of
Rolf the Ganger tells its own tale; and if we write it "Ralph the
Goer" it seems very familiar to our English ears, even though it be
the name of a fierce Danish chief who lived a thousand years ago.
But the reason why the course of the story of our English history
has been interrupted to give an account of Rolf and his followers,
is not that we may learn lessons from the name of " The Ganger,"
but in order that we may read in its proper place the story of an
event which was, in years to come, to have a very great effect upon
our history and upon the fortunes of England.
The Northmen who sailed with Rolf landed on the French shore
of the English Channel, and there set to work to rob and plunder,
68 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
as their comrades had so often done in England. Charles the Simple,
the French king, did his best to drive them out, but was unsuccessful,
and was at length compelled to follow the example of King Alfred,
and to hand over to them a certain portion of his kingdom, as the
price of peace, in order to save the remainder (911). The portion of
France which was handed over to Rolf and his followers became
known at a later day as "Normandy,"' or the country of the Normans
or Northmen. Rolf received the title of Duke of Normandy, and fixed
his capital in the town of Rouen. As Duke of Normandy, Rolf was
supposed to rule only by leave of the King of France, but it soon be-
came clear that the claim of authority made by Charles had little value.
The leader of the Northmen was summoned to Paris, and was
bidden to kneel and kiss the foot of the French king, in token that he
was ready to be true to him and to obey him as his chief. To have
done so would only have been to follow the common example, for to
kiss the foot of an Over-lord was an ordinary sign of obedience and
submission. But the proud Norman already looked upon himself as
the equal of the King of France. When he approached the throne,
instead of stooping down to kiss the royal foot, he caught hold of the
King's toes, and throwing him backwards, chair and all, exposed him to
the ridicule of his own subjects, and to the scorn of the Normans.
But though the Normans first came into France as pirates, and
conducted themselves as savage conquerors, supported by no power
except the sword, they soon became a great deal more than either
pirates or mere conquerors. Like the Danes in England, they settled
down in the rich land they had made their new home. They learnt
much from the French who surrounded them, and with their strong
character and their bright wits they made the best use of what
they learnt. They adopted the religion, and in a great part the speech
of those whom they had conquered. They became a Christian people,
and it is to them that France owes many of the splendid churches
which are to be seen in Normandy to this day. They learnt to read
and write, and some of them became famous as authors. They learnt to
be expert workers in metal. The armour that they wore and the weapons
with which they fought remain to this day as proofs of their skill. As
architects and builders, their name became famous throughout the
world ; and to this day we speak of " Norman Architecture " to describe
the style of building which they chose for their churches and for their
fortresses.
Above all, they became a disciplined people, governed by strict
laws, both in peace and in war. Accustomed to practise all military
exercises, they learnt that victory was to be obtained as much by
THE VICTORIES OF AriiRLSTAto. 69
obedience and order as by valour and strength. When we meet
with these Normans again in our history, we shall then find them no
longer the fierce, uncivilised warriors who landed with Rolf in 876, but
disciplined, well-trained soldiers, men skilled in all the learning of theif
day, law- makers, and statesmen, as fit to conquer as the followers of
Kolf, and far more fit to fule4
The Victories of AthelstaiL
" Here Athelstan, King,
Of Earls the Lord,
Of heroes the bracele'c-giuer
And his brother eke,
Edmund Ethel ing,
Livelong glory
In battle won
With edges of swords
Near Brumby." — " Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," 937.
And now we must return to the course of events in England.
When we remember how completely the Danes seemed to have been
defeated and subdued by Alfred and Edward the Elder, it seems strange
to find that the greater part of Athelstan's reign was occupied in defend-
ing his kingdom from Danish invasion. But such was the fact. Many
of the Danes had settled down among the English, had married English
wives, and learnt the English tongue, but the emigration from Norway
and Denmark was by np means yet over. We have already seen how
some of the Northmen had found their way southwards, and had
founded the Norman State in France. Others, afraid to land in
England, had sailed round to Ireland, in the reign of King Edward, and
had planted a colony at Dublin. And now, both from Norway itself
and from Ireland, there came afresh invasion, and England once more
had to defend itself. The Welsh, suffering from their defeat in fighting
Edward, joined the Danes ; and among their countrymen already
settled in England, the Danish invaders found allies.
Athelstan advanced against them, and at a great battle at Brunan-
burgh (937), of which the exact locality is unknown, gained a complete
victory. Five of the Danish kings and seven of the great Danish
chiefs, or Eorls,1 were killed in the battle.
The story of the fight may still be read in a long poem which was
written at the time. The poem is not in English such as we speak
1 Our title of " Earl" is the same as ihe Danish " Jarl."
70 ff IS TORY OF ENGLAND.
now, but it is written in the Anglo- Saxon language, which was tn£
language which the people of England talked in the time of King
Athelstan .
The poem is made up of a number of very short lines, or verses, and
no doubt it was sung by the harpers, who pleased the king and his
soldiers by singing to them of their brave deeds, and of their great
victory over the Danes. It tells us how fierce the fight was, how
bravely the English fought, and how at last the Danes were beaten, and
fled. The poem has been translated into English, and here is an
extract from it : —
There lay many a warrior
Slain by the spear ;
There lay the Northmen
Shot over the tops of their shields.
And there were the Scots
Weary and sad ;
The bands of West Saxons
All day long pursued
The hated strangers.
* * * *
The Northmen departed
In their nailed ships.1
* * * *
On the roaring ocean
O'er the deep water,
Dublin to seek ;
And to Ireland again,
With minds full of shame.
* * * <:•
Greater bloodshed
In this island
Has never been seen
Before this day —
As the books tell us,
As the old writers say,
Since the time when there cams here
The Angles and the Saxons
From the East,
Over the broad seas
To England.
1 Thir, means that ihe pianks of which their ships were made were fastened together with nai s,
Dunstan.
'For Church and State."
Three years after the battle of Brunanburgh, Athelstan died, and
was succeeded by his brother Edmund (940). Edmund was only
eighteen years of age when he became king, and, encouraged by his
youth, the Danes again renewed their attacks. But the new king
showed himself not less courageous and successful than his brother, and
defeated his enemies in several battles. Unfortunately, his reign was
cut short in a tragic manner. A certain Liofa, well-known as an outlaw
and a robber, was captured by order of the King, who spared his life
and exiled him from the country.
After a few years had passed, Liofa returned, and finding his way to
the English court, entered the great banqueting hall where Edmund
was feasting. He had the boldness to walk up the hall and seat him-
self at the table. Indignant at the insult, Edmund ordered his servants
to expel the intruder, and make him a prisoner. Liofa drew a dagger,
and sought to defend himself, and the King in a passion caught the
robber by the hair and threw him to the ground. But the outlaw,
suddenly leaping to his feet, plunged his dagger into the King's heart.
He was cut down and killed, but Edmund's wound was mortal. He
died at the age of twenty-four, after a short and brilliant reign of six
years. His brother Edred was chosen king in his place.
Edred (946) reigned a very short time ; but his reign is memorable
because during it we find the first mention of a very famous name —
that of Dunstan, who, without doubt, was for many years the greatest
man in England. Dunstan was born near Glastonbury in the year
925 ; he became a priest at a very early age, and when only eighteen
was made Abbot of Glastonbury. In our own day we are familiar
with many of the great abbeys of England. Some of them, such as
Fountains, Tintern, and Glastonbury itself, are in ruins; others, such
as Westminster and Romsey, are still used as churches. At the time
when Dunstan was appointed Abbot of Glastonbury, he was at the
head of a body of monks who lived in the Monastery surrounding the
Abbey. The monks were men who had agreed to live together and
to obey certain rules ; they promised never to marry, and they
undertook to give up their lives to religion and good works. The
72 H/ STORY OF ENGLAND,
Nunneries resembled the Monasteries, but were occupied by women
who bore the name of nuns, and who were usually under the rule
of an abbess. The name of Hilda, the Abbess of Whitby (657), is
still remembered, both on account of the pious life and good works
of its bearer, and on account of the great Abbey Church of St. Hilda,
of which the ruins are to be seen on the cliff at Whitby to this
day.
At the time when Dunstan lived, the monasteries were the
centre of almost all the learning and education of the country, and
the arts of reading arid writing were chiefly known and practised
by the monks and nuns. Many of the monks devoted themselves
to good works, but many among them undoubtedly took a bad
advantage of the safety which their religious position gave them
and lived bad lives, doing harm rather than doing good.
King Edred, hearing of Dunstan and of the knowledge and
ability which he showed, sent for him and made him his most
trusted counsellor. The reign of Edred lasted for nine years,
and that of his nephew Edwy, who succeeded him, lasted only
three years. It was not till Edgar (959), Edwy's brother, came to
the thsone, that Dunstan -became really powerful. Edwy had sent
Dunstan away from the Court, but Edgar recalled him, and made
him his chief adviser in all that he did.
We know enough of the life of Dunstan to be able to form some
idea of what kind of a man he was. Like all other men, he was a
mixture of good and evil, and certainly had many faults; but he
was beyond doubt a wise and honest adviser to those who asked
for his advice and followed it. He had two great ambitions — the one
to make England great and powerful ; the other to make the Church,
and all those who belonged to the Church, powerful and rich. He
was a stern, harsh man, and always anxious to have his own way ;
to those who disagreed with him, he was rough and cruel. Such a
man was sure to make enemies, and Dunstan made many; but he
did much that was good, and his name has always been justly
remembered as that of a great Englishman. He was made Arch-
bishop of Canterbury by King Edgar, and he used his power in
that high position to do all the good he could to the Church of
which he was the head. As Abbot of Glastonbury, he had learnt that
many of the monasteries were in very bad order, and that priests
and monks were leading lives that brought shame upon the Church.
He caused inquiry to be made, drove out the evil-doers, and put
better men in their places. After his death men called him a saint,
and many strange stories were told of the wonderful things he was
>3
I
*
,-t
l!
I
«
•
D*
74
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
said to have done while he was alive. The name of Dunstan is
still to be found in many places in England, and there are no
less than nineteen churches which are called " St. Dunstan's" after
the great man of whom we have been reading.
In the middle of the busy streets of the city of London, in Fleet
Street, there stands a church with a tall tower, which recalls the
name of King Edgar's great Archbishop, for it is called the " Church
of St. Dunstan"
Edgar.
Was no fleet so insolent,
No host so strong,
That in the English race
Took from him aught
The while the noble King
Reigned on his throne !
Description of Edgar in the " Anglo-Saxon Chronicle."
With Dunstan's help, Edgar became a great king, and in his time
there was peace in England. All the " Under-Kings" or chiefs, obeyed
ONE OF OUR ENGLISH WILD BEASTS— THE BAOGI.R.
him, and were willing to serve him. Thciv is a story told of the king
which shows how powerful he was. It is said that Edgar was rowed in
ST. DUNSTAN'S CHURCH, FLEET STREET, LONDON.
(Frant a phfltograph by J . Valentine &* Sons, Dutdee.)
76
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
a boat on the River Dee, near Chester, and that every one of the eight
rowers was himself an English, Scottish, or a Welsh king who had sub-
mitted to the great King of England.
There is another story told of King Edgar and his times which helps
us to understand what a change
has taken place in our country
since his day. In his reign there
were thousands of wolves in Wales,
and they were so fierce, that
at last Edgar determined to get
rid of them. At that time the
Welsh paid to the king a sum of
money in the form of a tribute.
Edgar sent to the Welsh and
told them that for the future they
need not pay any tribute in money,
but that, instead, they must send
him each year the heads of three
hundred wolves. The Welsh
obeyed, and many hundreds of
wolves' heads were brought to the
King. But though so many were
killed, it is certain that very many
must have been left alive; for
there were plenty of wolves in
Wales, and in England too, long
after the days of King Edgar.
It seems strange to think of
these savage animals running wild
in our country. Now, the largest
wild animal that eats other crea-
tures which is left in England is
the badger; and as there are very
few badgers, and as the very few
that are left generally take their
walks between one and three
o'clock in the morning, when most
of us are in bed and asleep, not many people ever see a badger at all.
It is true that there are other wild animals of the same kind still
left, but they are even smaller than the badgers. There are the foxes ;
but if it were not that foxes were kept for hunting in some parts of the
country, there would soon be no foxes left alive. There are also a few
ONE OF OUR ENGLISH WILD BEASTS
—THE WEASEL.
EDGAR.
77
cotters, and there are weasels and stoats, which are fierce little creatures.
But the day has long gone by when Englishmen have anything to fear
from any wild beast, such as the wild boars and the wolves, which were
common in every part of the land in the time of King Edgar.
King Edgar died
when he was thirty-
two years old. He
had been twice
married. His first
wife was called
^llfleda, and she had
a son named Ed-
ward. Edgar's
second wife was
called ^Ifrida, and
she also had a son
whose name was
.ffithelred. There
was a division
among the people
as to which of the
young princes
should succeed to
the throne, and two
parties were
formed. Dunstan
took up the cause
of Edward, who
was only a boy of
fourteen, and whom
the great Arch-
bishop could easily
guide. But though
Edward had succeeded in gaining the crown, his life was but a
short one, and had a tragic ending. Jealous of her step-son, and
longing to see her own boy ^Ethelred made king, ^Elfrida plotted
against the young king's life, and soon found means to carry out
her plan. One da}7, as Edward was out hunting, he stopped, as he
rode back from the hunt, at the door of Corfe Castle, in Dorsetshire,
where his step mother lived. When /Elfrida heard that the king was
at the door, she came out and begged him to dismount, ai:d enter the
castle. The king, however, refused to enter. No doubt he knew that
THE MURDER OF KING EDWARD.
7 3 id t STORY OF ENGLAND.
his step-mother was jealous of him, and wished to do him an injury.
He would only stop to drink a cup of wine, he said, and then ride on
again. The wine was brought, but while the king was drinking, a man,
paid by vElfrida to do the deed, stabbed him in the back, and killed
him. The people heard with regret of the murder of the young king,
but ^Elfrida rejoiced, because nothing now stood in the way of her own
son JEthelred.
JEthelred now, in an unlucky hour for his country, ascended the
throne. As for ^Elfrida, she soon found that her crime had .not
brought her happiness. Overcome by remorse, she shut herself in a
nunnery, and passed the rest of her life sorrowing over the wrong
she had done.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE DANISH CONQUEST.
979-1016.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE PERIOD DESCRIBED
IN THIS CHAPTER.
JEthelred, "The Un-redy," so i of Edgar
and /Elfrida, became king 979, d.
IDl6.
£ililaed, first wife of ^thelred.
Edmund "Ironside," son of TEthelred
and -/Eiflaed, afterwards King of Eng-
land, b. 989.
LJ.ward the " Confessor," son of ^Ethelred
and Emma, afterwards, King of Eng-
land, b. 1004.
Sweyn, Kin^ of the Danes, d. ior4.
Canute, King of Denmark, afterwards King
of England.
Richard II. ("The Good"), Duke of Nor-
mandy, 996.
Emma, sister of Richard, Duke of Normandy,
second wife of ^'thelred, m. 1002.
Hugh Capet, King of France, d. 996.
EdriC Streona, an English chief.
Alphege (St. Alphege), Archbuhop of Can-
terbury, killed by the Danes 1012.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE PERIOD DESCRIBED IN THIS
CHAPTER.
1002. ^Ethelred manies Emma of Normandy.
November i3th — St. Bricks Day; Mas-
sacre of the Danes in England.
1006. The Danes overrun England,
ion. Canterbury taken by the Danes.
1012. Alphege murdered by the Danes,
toij. Flight of ^Ethelred to Normandy.
1013. Sweyn becomes King of England.
1014. Death of Sweyn.
/Ethelred returns to England.
1015. Canute, King of Denmark, lands in
Dorsetshire.
1016. Death of ./Ethelred.
jEthelred, "The Un-redy."
"The pn'r.ce that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor." — •
Proverbs xxviii. 16
THE reign of ^Ethelred (979) was an unhappy one for England.
/Ethelred was called The " Unready." This name did not mean
that the King was unpunctual, or that he was not ready to do
things when they had to be done — it really meant something quite
different. There is an Anglo-Saxon word " rede" which means
"counsel," and .ffithelred the "Unready" really meant &thelred the
Un-redy — that is to say, a man who was not well counselled or well
advised in what he did.
The very first thing which yEthelred did when he became king
showed that he was indeed without "rede"; for he quarrelled with
the wisest counsellor he had. This wise counsellor was Dunstan,
who was soon obliged to leave the king's court and to go and live
far away, to escape from his enemies, who were the young king's
friends.
The wise old man saw that the king would bring misfortune
upon his country, but he could do nothing to stop it. Dunstan
died in the year 988, nine years after ^thelred had come to the
throne ; he was sixty-three years old when he died. Seven kings
had reigned in England during his life, and he had been the friend
and adviser of four of them.
Other people besides Dunstan soon saw that yEthelred was a
weak man, and without counsel. Among the persons who saw this
was Sweyn, King of the Danes. Sweyn, who was called by his
people "Sweyn of the Forked Beard," or "Fork-beard," was a great
and powerful king, and he longed to come over to England and
win victories over the English, as so many other Danish kings had
done before him. At last he persuaded Olaf, King of Norway, to
join with him, and the two kings sailed together with their fleet
into the River Thames.
The English in London fought bravely, but /Ethelred was less
brave than his people. He thought of a way of getting rid of the
Danes which would save him the trouble of fighting them. He
offered to pay them large sums of money if they would go away and
leave England in peace. It soon became plain that this was very
nearly the worst plan he c Mild have chosen; the Dines found out
80 ffisroRY OF ENGLAND.
that /Ethelred was afraid of them, and when they knew that they
could get money by coming over, they came again and again.
Ethelred now pnt a tax upon the English ; each man had to pay
so much a year towards the sum which was to be given to the
Danes. This tax was called the "Dane-geld," or the "-Dane Money"*
Naturally enough, the Danes, as soon as they learnt that the Dane-
geld was ready for them, lost no time in coming over to get it. And
thus matters became worse than when the English had shown a brave
front to their enemies.
Once more Ethelred showed how " un-redy " he was, for he thought
of a new plan of getting rid of the Danes which was even worse than
that of paying them money to go. He gave secret orders that on a
certain night all the Danes who were living in England were to be
killed. The night which was chosen was that of St. Brice's Day, which
is on the i3th of November (1002). On that night a great many of the
Danes, who suspected no harm, were cruelly put to death.
Among those who were killed, was the sister of Sweyn, King of
Denmark. When Sweyn heard what had been done, he was terribly
angry, and he vowed that he would come to England and destroy all
that he could find there.
He sailed with an army, and came to Exeter. He took and burnt
the city of Exeter, and killed many of the English. The next year he
came to England again, and this time he landed near Norwich. The
English were foolish enough to promise to pay the Danes a great sum
of money if they would go away and not injure their town. The Danes
took the money, and then burnt the town they had promised to spare.
Ethelred the Un-redy could do nothing to beat back the armies of
the Danes, and soon misfortunes multiplied, for Edric Streona, one of
yEthelred's own generals, and a great chief among the people, went
over and joined the Danes with some of the English ships.
St. Alpheg-e.
" Then was it ii\ every wise a heavy tims because the Northmen neuet
ceased from their euil doings."— " Anglo-Saxon Chronicle." A.D. 1000.
At last yEthelred had scarcely any towns left in his possession.
Every one had been taken by the Danes except London and Canterbury.
1 The German word for money is still " ^cLi"
Sr. ALPHEGE. Si
Soon a strong army of Danes marched to Canterbury. They took the
city and burned it to the ground. The Archbishop of Canterbury at
that time was called Alphege. He was made prisoner by the Danes.
They told Alphege that if his people would pay a large sum of money,
he should be set free. Then the Archbishop replied: " My people are
poor and it' distress. They had little before you came, and now you have
taken' from them the little that they have. I will never make my people pay
to set me free."
$2 iflHTORY OF F.NGI.AND.
At first the Danes did not believe him. They thought that he would
be afraid of death, and that he would ask his friends to pay the money.
But Alphege was as brave as he was good. He took no trouble to try
to get the money, but he spent his time in trying to convert to
Christianity the Danish soldiers who guarded him.
The Danes now became angry; and one day, when their chiefs
were feasting together, they sent for Alphege, their prisoner, and
had him brought before them. In their fierce drunken anger they
cried out to the Archbishop, " Where is your gold? Give us the gold/"
Alphege stood calm and unmoved. Then the feasters dragged
Alphege out of the hall, and began to throw at him their drinking
cups and the bones which were left from the meat upon which they
had been feasting.
The Archbishop fell upon his knees ; and as he knelt, one of the
Danes struck him to the ground with his axe, and killed him.
It is not wonderful that the English people were proud of thei;'
good Archbishop, and that they soon learnt to call him " Saint
Alphege."
There is a church in the town of Greenwich called the church
of St. Alphege, and in it these words were written up, and could be
read by anyone until a few years ago, when the church was altered :
(Tfiurrlj toas built to tlir ifSlon> of tfiofc. anH in mnnon> of
rt. .aipfjnjf. .anfjbisliop of (iTantcrburij, totiu tons IIHT slain tn> tlir
Danrs, brrausr fir toottlD not ransom fits lifr bij an nnrrasonablr sum of
At last yEthelred gave up all hope of fighting against the Danes, and
fled like a coward from his country. Thereupon Sweyn, King of
Denmark, became the real King of England (1013), and for the first
time there was a Danish king upon the English throne.
When Sweyn died, the people of England sent for ^Ethelred,
and made him return to his country. They preferred to have a
king of their own, even though he were a bad one, rather than a
foreigner.
But i^Ethelred had not learnt wisdom while he was in exile; and
though he and his son Edmund fought against the Danes, and tried
once more to free the country from them, the English were again
beaten and the Danes left masters of the field.
^Ethelred was twice married. His first wife was named ^Elflaed.
His second was Emma of Normandy, sister of Richard "The Good,"
Duke of Normandy.
THE
^Ethelred died in Iho year 1016, when he was forty-eight years old.
He had been king for thirty-seven years. Seldom has England been
so unhappy and so unlucky as it was in the days of " JEthelred the
Un-redy."
CHAPTER IX.
THE DANISH KINGS AND EDWARD THE CONFESSOR.
1016-1066.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE PERIOD DESCRIBED
IN THIS CHAPTER.
Edmund (Ironside), son of ^Kthelred and
./Elflaed, became King of England
1016, murdered loif.
Edward, son of Edmund Ironside, d. 1057.
Edmund, son of Edmund Ir nside.
Canute, son of Sweyn, King of Denmark,
Norway, and Sweden, became King
of England 1017, d. 1035.
Emma, widow of ^Ethelred, wife of Canute,
m. 1017.
Harold, son of Canute, became King of
England 1037, d. 1040-
Harthacanute, son of Canute, became King
of England 1040, d. 1042.
Sweyn, son of Canute, King of Norway.
Ldward (called ''The Cpn^essor ' ), son of
/Ethelred and Emm'a, became King of
England 1042, d. 1066.
Edith, daughter of Earl Godwin, wife of
Edward the Confessor.
LeofriC Of Mercia, an English Earl.
Godwin, an English Earl, d. 1053.
Sweyn, son of Godwin.
Harold, son of Godwin, afterwards King
of England.
Tqstig, son of Godwin, d. 1066.
William, Duke of Normandy.
Edward, son of Edmund IronsiJe, nephew
of Edward the Confessor.
Edgar (known as " Edgar Atheling "), son of
Edward.
Margaret, daughter of Ed war '.
Christina, daughter of Edward.
MalCOlm III., King of Scots, husban-1 of
Margaret.
Harold Hardrada, chief of the Northmen.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE PERIOD DESCRIBED IN THIS
CHAPTER.
1016. Murder of Edmund Ironside.
1017. Canute becomes King of Fngland.
1027. Birth of William of Normandy.
1035. Death of Canute.
Harold and Harthacanute divide Eng-
land.
1037. Harold becomes King alone.
1040. Death of Harold. Succeeded by
Harthacanute.
1042. Death of Harthacanute.
1042. Edward the Confessor becomes King.
1049. Westminster Abbey commenced.
1051. Banishment of Earl Godwin.
1052. Return of Earl Godwin and his sons.
1057. Death of Edward, son of Edmund
Ironside.
1065. King Edward collects the Anglo-Saxon
laws.
Westminster Abbey dedicated.
io65. Death of Edward the Confessor.
84 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Edmund Ironside and Canute. Harold and Hartha Canute.
"Canute, King of England, Denmark, Norway, and part of the Swedes, to
jfthelnoth, Metropolitan,1 and Elfric, Archbishop of York, and to all bishops,
nobles, and to the whole nation of the English high and low, health. "—From
a Letter of King Canute to the English.
AFTER the death of ^Ethelred, his son Edmund became king (1016).
Edmund was a brave man and a good soldier, and justly gained the
honourable title of Edmund Ironside. He fought many battles against
Canute and the Danes ; and at last both sides, weary of fighting, agreed
to divide England between them. Canute was to have one part, and
Edmund Ironside was to have the other part.
But this plan of having two kings did not last long ; for after he had
been king only seven months, Edmund died, leaving two little children,
called Edward and Edmund. We must not forget Edward, the son of
Edmund, for although he himself played no part in our history, his
son, Edgar Atheling, and his daughter, Margaret, were both important
personages, and became famous in their day. For the time they fled
to Sweden, where they found a refuge.
When King Edmund Ironside died, Canute, the Dane, became king
over all England (1017), for there was now no serious rival to fight
against. Although Canute was a foreigner, he proved to be a very
good king. He made up his mind that he would make friends with
the English, and that he would govern the country in the way they
wished. He sent away many of the Danes who had come over with
him from Denmark, and gave the offices which they held to English-
men. He said that the English laws should be observed, and not
the Danish ones, and that equal justice should be done to Danes
and English alike. He divided the English kingdom into four great
divisions, each of which he put under the government of a "Jarl"
or Earl. We shall see that these Earls became very important persons
before many years had gone by. He married Emma of Normandy, who
was the widow of King ^Ethelred the Unready.
It is not wonderful that, when the English saw how friendly King
Canute was to them, they should be ready to help him and to obey
him. So popular did he become with his new subjects, that, when he
1 Metropolitan. — 1\i& Archbishop of Canterbury ; the head, or Metropolitan of the Church in
England.
EDMUNI\ CANUTE, HAROLD, HARTHACANUTE. 85
crossed the sea to fight against his enemies in Sweden, many of the
English went with him, to fight as his soldiers. An English army,
under King Canute, fought against the Swedes, and defeated them in a
great battle.
While Canute was king, the people of foreign countries learnt to
fear and respect England ; and the name of Canute was well known
throughout all Europe.
A well-known story is told of Canute, which shows that the king
was a wise as well as a powerful monarch. One day, so the old
chronicle tells us, the king, surrounded by his courtiers, stood on the
sea-shore at Southampton. Willing to flatter him, and thereby to win
his favour, his courtiers began to praise him, and to speak with awe of
his power and authority. " Give the command," said one of them,
" and even the waves of the sea would obey you, and the on-coming
tide cease to flow." The king heard with indignation the words of the
flatterer, and turning to his courtiers, he bade them bring his chair of
state and place it on the beach in front of the advancing waves.
He then solemnly ordered the tide to stop its advance. But the resist-
less tide swelled and rose, as the king knew full well it must, until the
water washed Canute's feet as he sat on his throne. Then turning to
his courtiers he sternly rebuked them.
Canute died when he was forty years old (1035), and after his death
misfortune once more fell upon England. Canute had three sons —
Harthacanute, Sweyn, and Harold. Sweyn became King of Norway,
Harthacanute became King of Denmark ; but the question as to which
of the three should be King of England brought about a sharp division.
There were two parties, one in favour of Harold, the other of Hartha-
canute. One of the great Earls, Leofric of Mercia, supported Harold ;
another, Earl Godwin, supported Harthacanute.
It was at length agreed to divide England between the two kings,
but this arrangement did not last long, for two years later, in 1037,
Harold became sole king. On his death, however, Harthacanute
succeeded him as king (1040). He was a very different man from
his father ; he was violent, unjust, and tyrannical. His attempts
to raise taxes from the people led to a revolt, which was put
down with great cruelty. Fortunately, after a short reign of two
years, Harthacanute died; it js sai(J that he l&lle$ fyirnselj: through
excessive drinking.
86 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Edward the Confessor and the Great Earls.
"King Edward came to Westminster at midwinter, and there caused to
be consecrated the Minster which himself had built to the Glory of God, and
of St. Peter, and all God's saints ; and the Church-hallowing was on
Ohildermass Day (December 28th}."— " Anglo-Saxon Chronicle."
On the death of Harthacanute the English thought that the time
had come to rid themselves for ever of Danish rule. The Danes in
England were divided among themselves, and Harthacanute had left
no son to claim the throne. The people were determined to have an
English king once more, and there was no difficulty in deciding upon
whom the choice should fall.
Edward, the second son of /Etlielred and Emma, had taken /refuge in
Normandy before the reign of Canute. Messages were now sent to
him, inviting him to come over and occupy the throne of his father,
/Ethelred. Edward accepted the invitation the more readily because
it was supported by the powerful influence of Earl Godwin, who at
this time was the most important person in England. Godwin him-
self sought to increase his power over the king by giving him his
daughter Edith in marriage.
At first all seemed to go well. The English were delighted to have
once more an English king, and thought that at last their country
would be free from foreign interference. Unluckily, they were doomed
to disappointment.
During his long stay at the Norman Court, Edward had made
many friends among the Normans and had acquired the tastes
and adopted the manners of those among whom he lived. That he
should bring over many of his Norman friends to share his good
fortunes in England was natural, but not wise. The English nobles
soon found that the power had passed from the hands of the Danes
only to fall into that of the Normans. An English party soon grew up.
It was led by Godwin, supported by his three cons, Sweyn, Harold, and
Tostig. It was not long before an open quarrel broke out between the
Norman and the English parties. The people of Dover attacked
Eustace of Boulogne, a Norman noble, who had married King Edward's
sister. They charged him with having insulted one of their
townsmen. A riot followed, and Eustace barely escaped with his
life.
Godwin supported the people of Dover, Edward stood by his.
EDWARD AND THE GREAT EARLS. 87
Norman friends, and both sides openly took up arms. At first, fortune
favoured the king, and he succeeded in driving Godwin and his three
sons out of the country, but it was not long before the earl returned,
stronger than ever. The people refused to support the king, whose
whole favour was given to the Normans, and nothing was left for him
but to submit to Godwin and to receive him into his favour.
Shortly after his return, Godwin died (1052), lamented by the
English. His sons, Harold, Sweyn, and Tostig, became as great
and as powerful as their father had been before them. Of the three
brothers, Harold was the most powerful, and the weakness of Edward
served to increase his influence.
The remaining years of Edward's reign are, indeed, occupied far
more with the history of Harold than of the king himself. Step by
step Harold succeeded in overcoming the other great nobles who
might have disputed the mastery with him, till at last he was, without
question, the foremost man in the kingdom.
Meanwhile, the king lived on ; but he had no son, and it was clear
that on his death there would be a struggle for the throne. The true
heir would, no doubt, have been another Edward, a son of the king's
elder brother, Edmund Ironside. Edward, with his three children, Edgar,
Margaret, and Christina, was in Hungary. He was invited over to
England, and would, no doubt, have been chosen king on his uncle's
death had he not died within a few days after reaching England. His
place should naturally have been taken by his son Edgar, known as
" Edgar Atheling." But though Edgar Atheling played a great part in
English history at a later date, and though his descendants became
kings and queens of England, he himself never sat upon the throne.
It may seem strange that in this short account which has been given
of the reign of King Edward so little should have been said about the
king himself. It seems all the more strange when we remember that
the name of this weak and unsuccessful king is, perhaps, better known
to us than that of any of the Saxon kings, with the exception of Alfred.
It was not till after his death that Edward received the title of " The
Confessor." l
By this name he will be always remembered, and the name of
Edward the Confessor will always be connected with one great monument
in English history. The king himself was a man of weak character,
and did little for his country in stormy times ; but he was pious and
studious, a lover of books, and preferred the company of priests and
students to that of soldiers and statesmen. From priests and students,
therefore, he received due honour ; and as in those days the priests
* " (^cnfcsiot " meaning urie who had suffered for his religion.
88
HISTORY OF ENGLAND,
were the only writers of history, it was natural that they should have
spoken with praise and admiration of one who was friendly to them
and to their Church. It has been said that the name of Edward the
Confessor will always be connected with one great monument : it is
that in which his own tomb may still be seen. In his day there lay in
the middle of the River Thames a little island, named Thorney Island.
On either side of it were
marshes, and the Thames
flowed broad and shallow, very
different from the deep, swift
stream which we see now. If
we stand on Westminster
Bridge, in the heart of London,
we look down upon the spot
where the Island of Thorney
lay eight hundred and thirty
years ago. It was on this island
that King Edward built his
church, which was dedicated
to St. Peter. As we stand on
Westminster Bridge, we can see
two towers rising close to the
Houses of Parliament ; these are
the towers of the "Church of
St. Peter."
•&afrw&P~ °1 Y^F* On the opposite page is a
$> picture of the church. It is
•RUSE" WINDOW IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY, very different from that which
Edward built more than eight
hundred years ago, for many English kings and queens have added
to the work which Edward began, and the beautiful building which
we see in the picture has grown bit by bit, until it has become one
of the greatest and most famous churches in the world. It is called
by the name which King Edward gave to it — "The Church of Saint
Peter " ; but all Englishmen know it still better by another name,
and speak of it as "Westminster Abbey."
It is in Westminster Abbey that many of England's greatest men
lie buried, and under its tall Pointed arches we can see the graves
of many famous men whose names are known to all the world. And
when we see them we must not forget to ask which is the grave of
Edward the Confessor, King of England, who first built the church of
Saint Peter on Thorney Island' more than eight hundred years ago.
9o
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
CHAPTER X.
THE NORMAN CONQUERORS.
1066.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE PERIOD DESCRIBED IN
THIS CHAPTER.
Harold, King of England, killed at Hastings,
October i-tth, 1066.
William the Conqueror, puke of Nor-
mandy, afterwards William I., King
( f England.
Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror.
TOStig,. brother of Harold, killed at the battle
of Stamford Bridge.
Harold Hardrada, chief of the Northmen,
killed at the battle of Stamford Bi idge.
Edgar Atheling, great-nephew of Edward
the Confessor.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE PERIOD DESCRIBED IN THIS
CHAPTER.
1066. January 6th — Harold becomes King of
England.
1066. September 25th - Battle of Stamford
Bridge.
October 1 4th— Battle of Hastings.
The Last of the English King's.
"And this year also was Harold consecrated King ; and he with little
quiet abode therein, the while that he wielded the Realm." — "Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle."
ON the death of Edward the Confessor, Harold at once came
forward and claimed the throne. We have seen that he was not
the true heir, but that Edgar, The Atheling, was alive. But at that
time the rule that the Kings of England should succeed to the throne
by right of birth was not fixed, nor always followed. Harold was
on the spot, and powerful ; Edgar was afar off — young, and without
friends. It was not unnatural, therefore, that the Witanagemot, or
Assembly of Councillors, should have agreed to choose as their king
the great and powerful Earl of Wessex.
Harold showed himself not unworthy of the choice; and as long
as he had only to contend with enemies within his own kingdom, he
proved successful in all he undertook. He attacked and defeated
LAST OF THE ENGLISH A*/.\'<;s. 91
the \\relsh, who had made themselves a terror to the English on the
bunks of the Severn. He defeated, or he won to his side, the great
nobles who threatened his throne, and he won the confidence of the
people, who saw in him a brave and wise sovereign of the same
race and the same speech as themselves.
Unfortunately, the reign,, so happily begun, was to end in a
HAROLD TAKF.N PRISONER ON THE NORMAN COAST.
disaster, and Harold himself was partly to blame for the fate which
was so soon to overtake both himself and his people.
Before we recount the last chapter in the history of our Saxon
kings, we must go back for a moment to those. Northern warriors
who had settled on the coast of France, and who had founded the
great Duchy of Normandy. Five dukes Jiad ruled since the days of
Rolf the Ganger. Now, in Harold's time there reigned in the city of
Rouen a great soldier and a powerful ruler, known as William, Duke
of Normandy. William and Harold were no strangers. About two
years before the death of Edward the Confessor, the English earl was
sailing down the Channel. A storm arose, the ship was wrecked, and
Harold was cast ashore on the Norman coast. The duke heard that
Harold was in his country. He sent messenger!:, and begged him
92 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
to come to Rouen. While there — so at least the Norman historians
declare — Harold made a promise, that on the death of Edward the
Confessor, he would recognise the claim of William to the throne
of England, and would assist him to make his claim good-
The duke called upon Harold to swear to fulfil his promise with
his hand placed upon a silver casket. Within the casket, we are told,
were contained sacred relics, which, as it was believed at that time,
made the oath more solemn and binding than it would otherwise have
been, and made it a great sin on Harold's part to break it. It may
well be asked what claim William of Normandy had to the crown
of England. It WM.S, in truth, a very slight one. His aunt, Emma of
Normandy, had married King /Ethelred, and Edward the Confessor,
therefore, was his cousin. But William declared that there was some-
thing which gave him a greater claim than the mere fact of his being
a relation to King Edward. He declared that when on a visit to
England he had spoken to King Edward about the succession to
the throne, and that the king had named him as his heir and successor.
It cannot be said that either the promise made by King Edward, or
the oath sworn by Harold, gave William a just claim to the crown.
It was soon seen that if William's claim was weak, his power of
making other people admit it was strong. Harold had scarcely
ascended the throne, when the duke demanded a fulfilment of the
promises which he declared had been made to him. He styled him-
self King of England, called Harold a usurper, and persuaded the
Bishops of the Church in Normandy to support his claim. He
immediately set to work to collect an army for the invasion of
England, and 900 ships and 60,000 soldiers were assembled on the
Norman coast. To make the task of invasion easier, William sought
for allies in England itself. He found them without difficulty. Tostig,
Harold's brother, was angry because he himself had not been chosen
Icing by the people. He readily promised aid to the Normans. Nor
was this all. He sent to Norway, to Harold Hardrada, one of the most
powerful of the chiefs of the Northmen, and invited him to come
over with his army. Harold Hardrada agreed, and, landing in the
North, joined his forces to those of Tostig.
93
The Battle of Hastings.
" The Romans in England they once held sway,
The Saxons they after them led the way,
They tugged with the Danes till an overthrow
They both of them got from the Norman bow. '
King Harold was watching the English Channel, when he heard his
new" enemies were marching to York. He started immediately for the
North with all the troops he could collect. As soon as the two armies
approached each other, a messenger was sent from Tostig to ask
whether Harold would make peace and agree to divide the kingdom
with his brother. Harold answered like a brave Englishman. " To my
brother Tostig," said he " / will give the kingdom of Northumberland, and
I will make peace with him, for he is an Englishman. But to Harold
Hardrada, who is a foreigner and an enemy, I will give him six feet of
English ground ; or, as I hear that he is taller than most men, I will give
him seven feet, but that is all the English ground he will have from me"
All hope of agreement was now gone, and nothing remained but to
fight for the mastery. The battle that followed was long and fierce,
but at length the enemy were defeated, and both Harold Hardrada and
Tostig were killed. The spot where the battle was fought is known as
Stamford Bridge, on the River Derwent, in Yorkshire. It was the last
triumph of the English arms.
Harold, with his victorious army, marched off in haste to the south,
to fight against his second enemy, William the Norman, but this time
no victory awaited him. Four days after the battle of Stamford Bridge
the Norman army landed at Pevensey, near Hastings. As William
stepped on shore, he fell, but as he rose he picked up a clod of earth
from the ground. " >Vr," said one of the duke's followers, "our Duke
has already taken the soil of England.'" Had Harold been at Pevensey
with his army, he might have prevented the Normans from landing;
but, unfortunately, he came too late.
The whole of the Normans got safely on shore, and marched to a
place about five miles north of Hastings. It was not for some days that
Harold was able to get an army strong enough to meet the enemy ; his
troops, it is said, had dispersed for the purpose of salting the meat
which was -to form their winter store. At .last, upon the i4th day of
October, in the year 1066, the English anc} the Norman armies met.
94 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
At first the Normans were beaten back by the English. The
English soldiers stood 'with their shields and their axes in a great ring
round King Harold. Again and again the Normans tried to break
through the ring, and each time they were beaten back.
At last William ordered the Normans to pretend to run away. Then
the English broke their ranks and followed them ; but as soon as they
had broken their ranks, the Norman horsemen rode among them and
cut them down without difficulty. But still the great ring round the
king remained unbroken. Then William thought of another plan — he
bade his archers fire their arrows up into the air, so that they should
fall on the heads of the English.
It so happened that one of these arrows struck King Harold in the
eye. The king fell to the ground mortally wounded. Then those who
had stood round him began to give way, and when the English saw
that the Royal Standard had fallen, and that their king was dead,
they fled on every side.
Soon the battle was over, and the Normans had won the victory.
Fifteen thousand of the Norman soldiers had been killed, and a still
greater number of the English. The body of King Harold was found
the next day upon the battlefield. It was buried under a heap of
stones, but it was afterwards taken away and buried again at Waltham
Abbey, in the county of Essex.
And so ended for many years the story of our English kings.
William the Norman became King of England (1066), and for more than
a hundred years England was ruled by foreigners, and was under the
power of the Normans. A great abbey was built on the battlefield in
memory of the great fight, and it is called to this day " Battle Abbey."
CHAPTER XI.
THE STORY OF THE ENGLISH.
Our Forefathers in Germany.
" The history of the English people begins among the forests of
Germany. "
THE last few chapters have been given up to the story of the
Saxons in England, and the rule of the Anglo-Saxon kings. A few
OUR FOREFATHERS IN GERMANY. 95
pages further on we shall read of the fall of the Anglo-Saxon kings,
and of the rise of another power in England — that of the Normans.
This is, therefore, a proper and convenient place to say something
more about our Anglo-Saxon forefathers, and to ask not only what
they did, but what manner of men they were, what language they
spoke, and what were their customs and their laws. Anyone who desires
to learn the history of his country must follow the events which
took place, must acquaint himself with the names of the kings, must
know something of the battles which were fought, and of the portions
of the various kingdoms, which, one after another, became powerful in
England. It is for this reason that a brief account of these matters
has been given in the preceding chapters of this book ; but it must
not be supposed that when the nature and order of these events
has been learnt we have made ourselves master of what is really
important in the history of Saxon England.
The fact that a particular King of Mercia was named Offa or
Penda, that ^Ethelred was a poor creature, or that Edmund lost his
life by treachery, makes very little difference to us who are now-
alive.
But there are parts of the history of the Anglo- Saxcns which are
of the greatest importance to us, because they explain much in the
story of our country which would otherwise be difficult to understand,
and because to them may be traced the things which we see and
do, the words which we use, and the laws which we live under at
the present day.
Once more, it is well to call to mind the fact that the number
of pages in a history book does not always represent the number
of years in that people's history. Scarcely seventy pages have been
given up in this book to telling the story of the early English, but
if we remember that between the time when Hengist and Horsa
landed at Ebbsfleet in 449, and the time when Harold, the last of
the Anglo-Saxon kings, lost his life in 1066, is a space of no less
than six hundred and seventeen years, we shall see that there was plenty
of time for England to become a very Anglo-Saxon country. That
it did so become, and indeed from that time to this has never really
been anything else, we shall soon see.
But it is not much use saying that England became an Anglo-
Saxon or an English country unless we know what the Anglo-Saxons
or English were like. To learn this, it will be well to go back to the
earliest account of our ancestors which exists. If we had to depend
upon the fierce companions of Hengist and Horsa for our accounts,
we should know very little about the subject ; for, though in later
96 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
days there were many famous Anglo-Saxon writers, both poets and
historians, the earliest invaders of our shores were far greater masters
of the sword than of the pen. Luckily, the same great writer who
told us much of what we know of the ancient Britons has given us
an account also of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors. Cams Cornelius
Tacitus, the Roman who, in his book the " Agricola," left us an
account of Britain, also wrote another book called " Germania," or
Germany, which has happily been preserved down to our own day.
In this book an account is given of the German tribes who inhabited
the northern part of Central Europe, and with whom the Romans,
in the time of Tacitus, were often at war.
But it will be asked— what have these German tribes to do with
our Anglo-Saxon forefathers? As a matter of fact, they have a great
deal to do with them ; for it was from these very German tribes
that the Anglo-Saxon invaders came, bringing with them their
language, their customs and their laws. An historian who set to
work to write the history of the people of the United States of
America, and made no mention of those European countries from
which the white inhabitants of the United States first came would
be making a great mistake ; and in the same way, anyone who
wrote the history of the Anglo-Saxons without enquiring who they
were and where they came from would be only half telling the
story.
Tacitus was one of the greatest of the Roman writers, and he
manages to tell in a few words more than many other writers tell in
a whole book. We may be sure that the description which he gives us
of the Germans tells us all that he knew or believed with respect to
them. This is how he describes them :— " A fine, unmixed, and in-
dependent race, unlike any other people . . . with stern blue eyes,
ruddy hair, of large and robust frames, but with a strength which only
appeared when roused to sudden effort." Such were the Germans
in appearance. " They would be the slaves of no man ; they respected
their women, and held them in love and honour. They considered no
disgrace equal to that which was the sure reward of a man who showed
himself a coward in battle. Fierce and cruel in war, they were content,
when the war was over, to lay aside the sword and spear, and to plough
their fields and to cultivate their land in peace and quiet."
They were free men, living in little villages scattered throughout a
great uninhabited country. Their habits and their laws grew naturally
out of the life they lived. In the centre of the little settlement was the
village, and all round it for miles lay the uncultivated land, forest, barren
heath, or inarsh-land. A people which has once settled down to a fixed
OUR FOREFATHERS IN GERMANY. 97
home soon has to give up hunting as a means of living, and has to take
to cultivating the soil. This the Germans did. The head of each
family cultivated a plot for himself. That was his own. The pasture-
land was common to all. Newcomers or old settlers who wanted
more land could only have it if it were given to them by the whole
village. Sometimes then, as now, people wanted land only for a short
time, and for a certain purpose ; in that case, it was " let" or " leased,"
to them.1
The heads of the village were the " Elders," or " Eldermen," and
the meeting in which the rules of the village were made was known as
the " Folk-Moot," or People's Council. Each village governed itself,
but that did not prevent the people of the same tribe or nation joining
together for the purposes of war. The expeditions which from time to
time advanced against the neighbouring peoples, and which finally
reached the shores of England, were led by chiefs who had made them-
selves famous by their success in war. Each chief was surrounded by
a band of young warriors, who swore to follow him and to serve him.
To these he often gave lands which were taken in war, and by reason
of their friendship with the chief, the followers, in time, came to be
looked upon as persons of special distinction, or noblemen.
The chiefs themselves were, as a rule, chosen from those families
of noble birth whose members claimed that they were descended from
the gods. They were chosen for their bravery, their experience of
warfare, and their bodily strength. Cowardice in the field was con-
sidered, as we have seen, to be the greatest of all crimes, the only
crime for which it was impossible to atone. Tacitus, who has described
the appearance and manners of the Germans, has given us a special
account of the band who followed their chiefs. " In the field of battle,"
he tells us, "it is disgraceful in the prince to be surpassed in valour
by his companions. . . . All are bound to defend him and to
succour him in the heat of battle, and to make even their own actions
add to his renown. This is the bond of honour, the most sacred duty."
The language which these free and warlike Germans spoke did not
very greatly differ from that which is spoken at the present day in
the country from which they came. In many parts of North-western
Germany a language is still spoken which is called " Platt-deutsch," or
" Low German," and this Low German is really very like the English
1 The land which belonged to the first settlers was known as "Ethel." Land which was
given to newcomers or old settlers out of what belonged to the whole village was called
" Bocland" because it was given by a charter or "book.'" Commonland belonging to all the
people, or folk, was the " Falkland" The land which was let was the " Laen " or " Loan ''
land.
q8 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
which is spoken in Yorkshire and the North of England — so like, that
it is possible to understand very many of the words, and even whole
sentences, without knowing any German. The language which the
German invaders brought to this country has gone through great
changes in the fourteen hundred years which have passed since the
landing of the Jutes ; but if we compare it with the English which we
speak now, we shall see in a moment that it is to the early German
invaders, and not to either Romans, Britons, or Normans, that we
owe the greatest part of our English language.
Our Forefathers in England.
"In the two little words, 'shire' and 'county,' if you could make them
render up even a small part of their treasure, what lessons of English
history are contained!" — Trench : "On the Study of Words."
We have now learnt something about the men whose descend-
ants became the English people; we have seen them in their
German homes, we must now follow them across the sea and
mquire what sort of people they became, and what were their
manners, customs and speech when they became masters of Eng-
land. It is very important indeed to do this, because, unless we
know something of the life and manners of the 'Anglo-Saxons, we
cannot hope to understand some of the most important of the in-
stitutions of our own country in our own day. The chiefs who led
the Saxon invasion brought with them their faithful companions,
and as land was taken from the Britons it became the property of
the new-comers; some was kept as the common property of the
whole tribe, some was taken by the chief, and some was given to
his followers. As the land became more settled, the custom grew up
of choosing the chief or king from the same family ; and at last there
came to be in each kingdom a royal family, some member of which
was always chosen as king.
The customs which had been brought from Germany became in
time the laws of the new land. Several sets of Anglo-Saxon laws
were drawn up by different kings. We have already read of the
laws of Ine, King of Wessex, and of Alfred, and these and others
still remain, and may be read in our time. From them we learn
many interesting things about the way in which justice was done.
OUR FOREFATHERS IN ENGLAND. 99
Each village or settlement was made answerable for the crime that
was committed in it ; it was the business of the village to punish
the guilty persons, and to pay the fine which the law imposed.
The Village Council governed the village, and a person who was
charged with crime had to prove his innocence to his fellow -villagers ;
as they had to pay for his fault, it was their business to find out
whether he were really guilty — and thus we see the beginning of an
institution which has lasted down to our own day, namely, the trial
of a man by his neighbours and equals. To this day the decision
as to a prisoner's guilt or innocence depends upon the verdict of
twelve men of the county or town in which the crime he is charged
with is committed ; and it is the business of these twelve men who
form the "Jury" to "well and truly try" the charge.
Besides the village council, there soon came to be councils of
more importance. The country as it was conquered was divided up
into "shares" or "shires" and in each of these there was a Shire-
Council, or Shire-Moot. The Shire-Moot both made laws and rules,
and tried people for offences. We have nothing quite like this at
the present day, but we have a County Court, or Shire Court, which
decides disputes, and we have a County Council, or Shire-Council,
which makes rules and laws for the shire. Even where a custom has
long died out in England, if it be a good one, English people are
fond of going back to it.
Not long after the Saxons became Christians, the country was
divided up into " Parishes " as well as shires, and now we have gone
back to the old names and the old things, and we have a Parish
Council and a County Council once more. It is strange to read in
the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," written a thousand years ago, of the
doings of the Shire-Moots of Kesteven, Holland, and Lindsey, and then
to take up a Lincolnshire newspaper of to-day and read about the
County Councils of Kesteven, Holland, and Lindsey. It cannot be said
that there was an English Parliament in exactly the same sense as
we speak of Parliament now, but there was in the latter part of the
Anglo-Saxon times a great Council known as the " Witanagemot," or
Council of the Wise. The members were not elected, but were chosen
by the king from the great families ; perhaps there were some persons
who had the right to attend. But though the Witanagemot was not
elected, it often had great power, and questions which interested the
people were freely discussed at its meetings.
But it is not only in the parish councils and'the juries of the early
English that we find things which remind us of what is very familiar to
us at the present day, There is scarcely a name of a common thing,
I oo HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
or a common custom mentioned in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'1
which has not got a meaning in our own day. We still have Dorset-
shire, the " Share " of the Dorssetas ; the Beadle of the County Court
might have been an officer under King Alfred. It is a "furlong," or a
"furrow-long" from the County Court to the Parish Church of St.
Edmund the Martyr, or St. Edward the Confessor. The Alderman still
^ takes a high place in the Town Council. The names of places, also,
remain to teach us our history wherever we go throughout England.
It was in the eastern part of our island that the invaders first
settled down, after having driven out or put to death the British popu-
lation. The names which the followers of Hengist and Horsa gave
to the new country, are the familiar names in daily use among us at
this day. It is a thousand years ago since a gift of land was made
to the Abbey of Medeshamsted. Those who drew up the Charter were
careful to see that there should be no mistake as to what the gift was,
and they wrote down the boundaries of the property as carefully as a
lawyer would at the present day. The Abbey of Medeshamsted has
now become the Cathedral of Peterborough ; and if we look at the map
of the counties of Northampton and Cambridge, we shall be able to
follow the description given in the Charter almost as easily as if it had
been drawn up yesterday.
Here are the words of the gift : —
" This is the gift from Medeshamsted to North Burh, and so to the place which is
called Folies, and so all the Fen right to Esendic, to the place which is called
Fethermuth ; and so on the straight way ten miles on to Cuggedic, and so to
Raggewilh; and from Raggewilh five miles to the straight river that goes to
Aehm and to Wisbec, and so about three miles to Throkonholt, right through all
the Fen country to Dereword, which is twenty miles long, and so to Cynate
Cross, and so on through all the meres and fens which lie towards Himtendun
Port, through Welmesford, Clive, Aestun, Stanford, and from Stanford as the
water runs to the aforesaid North Burh."
Some of these names do not seem quite familiar to us, but there is
not one of them that we cannot find on the map in a form so like that
given in the Charter that there can be no mistaking it. Northburgh
exists now as it did in the days of Wolfhere, who made the grant. We
have no Raggewilh, but Bothwell marks its place. The Great Northern
Railway runs through Wisbech and Huntingdon. Clive, in in its old
form is forgotten, but in its newer form of King's Cliffe is still familiar to
us. Aehm has given place to Elm. Throkonholt survives as Throckenholt.
Dereward, in the Fens, is still to be found in the Fens as Dereworth.
Cynate Cross is Great Cross, Welmesford is Walmsford, Aestun is Aston, and
Stanford, with the change of a letter, has come down to us as Stamford.
roi
CHAPTER XII.
THE HISTORIANS AND WRITERS OF ENGLAND BEFORE
THE NORMAN CONQUEST.
"And in truth after his time there were those among the English race
who essayed to u/rite religious poems, but not one was able to come on a
level with him. For he learnt the art of song, not from man, nor from any
human source, but received it as a free gift by Diuine grace. "
Bede, describing Cadmon and his Poetry,
Now that we have come to an end of one long chapter in our history,
it is natural to ask how we know anything of the facts which took
place in days so long ago as those of the Britons, or even in the later
times of Edgar and Alfred — who are the historians that have pre-
served for us a record of these events, what are the books which they
have written, and in what language can the story which they told be
read ? Happily for the world, the great conquests of Rome spread the
Latin language over all Europe; an3, at a later date, the Christian
Church, in its effort to reach the heathen to whom it sent its mission-
aries, preserved the Latin language as the language of the Church. And
thus it came about that for many hundred years almost all the books
in the world were written in Latin — a language easy to understand,
clear and certain in its expressions, and which tells us about the events
which it records as plainly as it told the story to the friends of Caesar
in Rome, or to the monks who surrounded the Venerable Bede in his
abbey in Northumberland eight hundred years later.
We have already seen how two great Roman writers have told us in
Latin the story of the Conquest of Britain ; and the works of Caesar
and of Tacitus are books written in the best time of a great literature.
NENNIUS, GILDAS, ANEURIN, AND TALIESIN.
Of the Britons themselves we know very little from British writers.
A few fragments of the works of writers of the ancient British or Celtic
race have, however, come down to us ; but it is in Ireland that the
fullest Celtic records are to be found. The name of Nennius is attached
to a history of the Britons written in Latin. Nennius, it seems, was
of Celtic race, but he must have lived as late as the eighth or even
io2 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the ninth century, long after the Britons had been driven out of the
greater part of Britain.
The name of Gildas has come down to us as that of another writer
who has given us a glimpse of the Britons ; but Gildas himself does
not seem to have been a Celt, and little is really known of him.
Wales preserves the name of a Celtic writer named Aneurin, and of
Taliesin, the chief of the Bards. Both these writers are said to have
lived in the sixth century, but neither is to us much more than a name.
The famous legends of King Arthur, the heroic king of the Britons, have
really come to us from Saxon or Continental writers of a much later
period.
BEOWULF, C^EDMON, AND ALDHELM.
It is not, indeed, till we come to Anglo-Saxon times that we find
the first traces of a real English literature— a literature which becomes
fuller and more splendid . from year to year and from century to
century. There are two kinds of writers who tell us the true story of
our ancestors. There are the historians and chroniclers, whose task it
has been to write down a record of what the men of their day said and
did. There are also the poets, who in their way tell us as much as, and
more than, the chroniclers ; for they tell us what was in the thoughts
and the minds of men, what were the things they believed in, loved, or
feared. Luckily, we find both historians and poets at a very early date
in our history. The great poem entitled "Beowulf" must have been
written as far back as the seventh century, at a time when Oswy v/as
king of Northumbria. It is written in Saxon. • It contains over six
thousand lines, and gives an account of the life and adventures of
Beowulf, the hero, who sailed the northern seas and fought with
monsters, conquered in battle, and ruled his people with wisdom and
mercy. Whenever it was written, the poem was early known in
England, and may be looked upon as really the first English poem.
Of about the same date is a great religious poem written by Caedmon
of Whitby. The poem is called " The Paraphrase," and it tells part
of the Bible story in verse, and speaks of the work of God, the power
of evil, and the life of man. Bede, another great writer of whom we
shall shortly have to speak, tells the story of the beginning of Caed-
mon's great poem. "As Caedmon slept," so writes Bede, "there came
one to him and said, ' Sing, Caedmon.' ' I cannot,' replied he. ' I came
hither from the feasting in the hall because I cannot sing.' * But,' said
the figure in the vision, ' it is to me you should sing.' ' What ought I
to sing ? ' inquired the poet. ' Sing the beginning of creatures,' was
the reply." Having received which answer, Caedmon, so Bede tells
us, began immediately to sing in verse the praises of God the Creator j
SAXON WRITERS — BEDE. 103
and when the vision passed away he continued to write verses on the
subject which had been sent to him, and in the end completed his
great poem " The Paraphrase.'"
We must pass over the name of Aldhelm (b. 656), who, in the monas-
tery of Malmesbury, wrote much in verse and prose. His work has not
been preserved, and we only know of it through others.
BEDE.
We must hasten on to speak of the most notable of all Anglo-Saxon
writers— of Bede, the famous author of the "Ecclesiastical History, or
History of the English Church" Born in 673, Bede was brought up
first in the monastery of St. Peter at Wearmouth, afterwards at the
monastery of St. Paul at Jarrow-on-Tyne. He wrote much, and he
wrote well ; and in his history of the Church he included much that
is of the deepest interest to all Englishmen who wish to know what
their country was like twelve hundred years ago, and how men acted
and thought in the days before Alfred was king. The works of Bede,
which were written in Latin, have been preserved, and have been
many times translated into English,, so that all who desire can read
them. That the writer himself was a man loved and honoured in his
day we have clear proof. The story of his death is a well-known, but
beautiful one, and so simply told that it will be well to repeat it here.
Four years before his death Bede finished his great history. He
was then fifty-nine. Four years later he was engaged in writing
a translation of the Gospel of St. John. He was at work in his cell
at the monastery at J arrow when his last illness overtook him. One
of his pupils said to him : " Most dear master, there is still one chapter want-
ing. Do you think it troublesome to be asked to answer any more questions?'1
" It is no trouble" said Bede. " Take your pen, make ready, and write fast"
Then a little later the pupil spoke once more : " Dear master"' said
he, " There is yet one sentence not written" He answered : " Write quickly ."
Then said the pupil: " The sentence is now written;" and the master
replied : " It is well ; you have said the truth— it is ended. Receive my
head into your hands, for it is a great satisfaction to me to sit facing my holy
place, where I was wont to pray, that I may, also sitting, call upon my
Father" And thus, on the pavement of his little cell, singing " 'Glory
be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,' he breathed
his last, and so departed into the heavenly kingdom." Such is the
story of the death of Bede written by his own pupil. It is told here
because it is a. beautiful story in itself, and because it shows us that we
have now come to a time in English history when we can begin once
more to picture men and women to ourselves as real people of whom
104 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
we know something, and can read accounts of what happened in the
actual words of eye-witnesses. It was in the year 735, when ^thelbald
was King of Mercia, that Bede died. The tomb, bearing the inscription
which tells us that within it lie the bones of the " Venerable Bede,"
may be seen to this day in the venerable cathedral of Durham.1
ALFRED AND ASSER.
If not the greatest, Bede is certainly the most important of English
ivriters before the time of the Norman Conquest, because so much of
what he wrote has been preserved and may still be read ; but there are
two other names which must certainly be mentioned in this chapter.
In the first place there is that of King Alfred himself, who wrote many
books both in Latin and in English, or A nglo-Saxon. He translated
the Church History of Bede from the Latin into a language the people
could understand ; he translated a portion of the Bible, and he also
turned into English a famous Latin book by a writer named Boethius.
The book deals with religious subjects, and is meant to be a help to
Christians in leading a good life.
Not less important, perhaps, than what Alfred himself wrote was the
" History of England" which was begun by his orders and under his
direction. This history is known as " The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" and
in it were written down the events in each year as they took place. It
begins with the history of the early Britons, but what it tells us of
events which took place before the reign of King Alfred cannot be
depended upon, as those who wrote it had no personal knowledge of
the things they described; but from the time of Alfred "The Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle''' becomes a really important record of the history of
England. It was continued for many years, and the last event which
is mentioned in it is the accession of Henry II. in 1154, two hundred
and fifty years after the death of Alfred.
A word must be said of Asser, a Welsh monk of St. Davids (d. 910),
for to him we owe " The Life of Alfred" from which most of the infor-
mation about that great 'king has been gathered. There is no copy of
the " Life," as Asser wrote it, in existence, but copies of the original
made at a later date were preserved ; and, though some alterations
have no doubt been made, much of the old book has been kept.
There are a few other names which might be mentioned in this
chapter if space permitted, but enough has been said to give an idea of
how it is that we know anything of the events which took place in
Anglo-Saxon England, and to whom it is that we owe our knowledge.
1 The inscription runs thus : " Hac sunt in fossa Bcedae venerabilis ossa."
PART TWO.
THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO THE ACCESSION
OF EDWARD I.
1066—1272.
NOTE.
The second part of our History deals with the period of 206
years which elapsed between the landing of William the
Conqueror at Hastings in 1066 and the accession of
Edward /. in 1272. The time was one of great and
far-reaching changes in England. The Normans who
landed on our shores as foreigners and enemies gradu-
ally became mixed with the English whom they had
conquered. The Norman kings ceased to be Norman,
and began to rely upon their English subjects whom they
had once despised, but whom they soon learnt to respect.
The very speech of the people changed. While Norman-
French ceased to be the language of the nobles, the
people themselves learned to speak and write in a new
language which, though it was English in the main,
owed much to the tongue of the masterful conquerors.
At length the distinction between Norman and English
passed away altogether, and the kings of England
became English in fact as well as in name.
Meanwhile, other great changes were taking place in the
laws, habits, and thoughts of Englishmen. When we
come to the story of Henry II. and Becket we shall learn
how, in those days, the great struggle between the civil
power on the one hand, and the Church on the other, had
begun — a struggle which was to last for many years, and
E*
io6
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
was to have a great influence upon the history of our
country. The story of Magna Charta is the story of the
beginning of our laws, and of the foundation of our
liberties. The life and death of Simon de Montfort carry
us through the first years of our Imperial Parliament ;
and thus, when we come to the accession of Edward L,
we find a real English nation, with its own language, its
own laws, its own place in the world, strong enough to
hold its position, and ready to risk its fortunes in war for
the purpose of adding to its territory and strengthening
its power. In tlie chapters that follow, we shall learn
how England, in its new-found strength, plunged into
war — a war which, with various changes and various
fortunes, occupied the energies of the country for more
than a hundred years.
CHAPTER XIII.
WILLIAM I,— THE NORMAN CONQUEST.
1066-1087.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF WILLIAM
THE CONQUEROR.
William the First, called "William the
Conqueror," Duke of Normandy, and
King of England, b. 1027, became
King of England, 1066, d. 1087
Robert, Duke of Normandy.
Matilda (of Flanders), wife of William the
Conqueror, m. 1053.
Richard, son of William.
William (Rufus), son of William, after-
wards Kin J of England.
Henry, son of William, afterwards King of
England.
Adela, daughter of William, m. Stephen,
Count of Blois.
LanfranC Archbishop of Canterbury,
Edgar Athellilg, son of Edward and grand-
son of Edmund Ironside a Saxou
King of England, d. 1158.
Hereward (the "Wake"), a Saxon Noble,
d. 107?.
Gregory VII., one of the greatest of the
Popes, d. 1085.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF WILLIAM THE
CONQUEROR.
1066. Battle of Hastings.
1068. William defeats Edwin and Morcar.
1069. William takes York.
William defeats the Danes.
1070. Lanfranc made Archbishop of Canter-
bury.
1071. William defeats Hereward, and
marches into Scotland.
1083.
1086.
1087.
William defeats his brother Robert in
France.
Death of Matilda.
Domesday Book, a list of all the
lands in England, and their owners,
completed.
Siege of Mantes, and Death of
William.
The Norman Conquerors.
Vce uictis,"1
WE read in Chapter X. an account of the great battle of Hastings,
in which William the Norman, whom we know of in history as William
the Conqueror, (1) - defeated Harold, King of England. We saw how
Harold lost his life in the battle, and how William and his Normans
gained the mastery. Battle Abbey, near Hastings, still stands to
tell us of the victory which was won on October 14-th, 1066.
Now we have to inquire whether the battle of Hastings, and the
victory of the Normans, have left any other marks behind them
in the history of our own country — marks which we can see with
our own eyes and in our own time. .
First, we must understand what was the condition of poor England
after the defeat at Hastings. It was poor England, indeed. Its
king had been killed and its best army cut to pieces. The English
people themselves were divided into Saxons and Danes, who had only
ceased fighting against each other a short time before. On the north,
beyond the river Tweed, were the Scots, ever ready to carry war
into England ; and on the west were the Welsh, all that was left of
the old Britons whom the Saxons had long ago turned out of their
country. And now, in addition to all the troubles that came from
Danes, from Scots, and from Welsh, there was an army of Normans,
under their great Duke William, standing as conquerors on the
shores of Sussex.
It was not for long, indeed, that William and his army stood
still. No sooner had the day been won than the Normans pressed
forward to London, and made themselves masters of the whole of the
southern part of England. At first, William determined that he would
try to put himself in the place of King Harold, and hoped that the
English, now they had been beaten, would submit to him, and
recognise him as their king.
It seemed as if what he hoped for were likely to take place. Many
1 " Woe to the vanquished."
a The numbers in brackets following names refer to the genealogical table at p. 266.
io8
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
of the English came and submitted themselves to him, and among
them Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury. An English archbishop,
Aldred of York, was found ready to crown William King of England, at
Westminster. When the great crowd of Englishmen who had come
together from all parts were asked whether they would accept William
for their king, they cried out, "Yea, yea!" And so it seemed
that without any further struggle the country was about to fall into the
hands of a foreign king
and a foreign army.
Those were dark
days for England.
Within the limits of the
country there were people
of four races — Saxons,
Danes, Normans, and
Welsh — all speaking dif-
ferent languages, and
having different customs
and different ideas. It
is true that the Saxons
and the Danes had at
last become united, and
that Canute and Harold
had reigned over both
Saxon and Dane alike,
but the difference be-
tween Norman and Eng-
lish was one which
seemed as if it could
never be healed.
William the Conqueror could not speak a word of English. He
and his barons talked and wrote in Norman-French. The English
whom he had conquered talked and wrote a language from which
our English speech really comes, but which was so unlike it that
few who read this book could understand it. This language was
Anglo-Saxon.
Here is a passage taken from an old rhyme, and written in Anglo-
Saxon. It is a puzzle to readers of modern English : —
" Merie sungen the muneches binnen Ely
$a Cnut ching reu fter by :
Rowel cnites ncer fte land,
And here we bes muneches sceng."
NORMAN AND SAXON ARMS.
NORMAN AND SAXON. 109
The verse in its English form is more familiar :—
" Merrily sang the monks of Ely
As Canute the king was passing by.
Row to the land, knights, said the king,
And let us hear these Churchmen sing."
Norman and Saxon.
"It is to the stern discipline of our foreign h'ngs that we owe not
merely English wealth and English freedom, but England herself. And of
these foreign masters the greatest was William of Normandy."— J. K.
Green : " History of the English People."
Here, then, were two peoples living in the same country, hating each
other, and neither of them understanding what the other said.
Soon matters were made worse, for William had brought over with
him from Normandy a great number of greedy barons, who would not
rest content until they had received as a reward for their services
broad lands and estates in England. William was compelled to give
great grants of land .to his followers, but before he could give the
lands to the Normans, he had, of course, to take them away from the
English, to whom they belonged.
Naturally, this gave rise to great ill-feeling, and still further in-
creased the hatred of the English for the Normans. Attacks upon the
Normans by the English were common, and all such attacks were
punished with great severity and cruelty.
An order was given that all Englishmen should put out their fires at
sundown, and that they should remain within their houses after night-
fall. A bell was rung to mark the hour when the fire was to be
extinguished, and an iron hood or cover had then to be put over
the fire by every English householder. This hood was called the
" Curfew," from a French word, " couvre-feu" which means, " Cover
the fire."
The curfew bell, which was the signal for putting out the fires in the
house, was for many a long year rung in almost every English town,
and there are many places, such as Sandwich and Shrewsbury, where
the old custom is, or was till very recently kept up, and the curfew
still "tolls the knell of parting day," although the hard law which
the curfew bell gave notice of in the time of William the Conqueror
has long since ceased to exist.
no HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Soon the discontent of the English broke out into open war. The
last descendant of the English kings was Edgar Atheling, grandson of
Edmund Ironside. His name was one which was loved by the
English, and more than ever loved now that he represented all that
was dear to them, and all that had been taken from them by the
Norman invaders.
Edgar Atheling does not seem to have been a man of great bravery
' NORMAN SOLDIERS.
or skill, but his name brought him many supporters. The chief among
them were Edwin and Morcar, Earls of Mercia and Northumberland.
The earls made war upon William, in the hope of putting Edgar upon
the throne. They called to their aid Welsh, Scots, arid Danes. But
they did not know the man they had to deal with in William. He
was too quick for them. He attacked them before help could come
from their allies, defeated them, and destroyed their army. Edgar him-
self fled to Scotland. This was the beginning of many battles fought
between the Normans and the English.
The Normans built strong castles on the great roads and on the
rivers, so as to keep the English in check, and to enable them to hold the
lands which they had taken from their enemies. The English fought
NORMAN AND SAXON. IIT
bravely, but time after time they were beaten by the skill and strength
of their enemies.
In one point the Normans had a great advantage over the English.
They knew the value of discipline and good order in war. They
had learnt the lesson which everybody has to learn before he can
be successful in war, or in any undertaking which has to be carried out
at the risk of life and involves danger — "that he who would command
must first learn to obey." No army has ever been successful in which
there has not been discipline, and in which men were not ready to give
up their own opinions as to what is best to do, and to obey the orders
of those who have been put over them.
It would be a long story to tell of all the fighting that took place in
England, but one or two incidents must be recalled. The first shows
how skilful William was in making use even of his enemies.
In 1073, seven years after the battle of Hastings, the king heard with
alarm that his brother Robert in Normandy was threatening to take
his' duchy from him. He went over to France in great haste, and the
army which he took with him was very largely made up of English
Soldiers, who, when they got into a foreign country, fought bravely
enough against the enemies of the Norman king, whom they had so
much reason to hate. With his English army William soon put down
all his enemies in Normandy, and returned again to fight in England.
Now we come to the other incident which it is well to recall. After
Edgar Atheling had fled into Scotland it seemed as if the last hope of
the English had gone, for they were quite without leaders. But there
was still one man who showed himself worthy of Alfred and Edgar.
This was Hereward, the son of an English noble of Danish descent.
He took up arms against the Conqueror, and resisted him with success
for a long time.
At length, however, he was forced to take refuge in the Fen country
around what is now the city of Peterborough. Protected by the im-
passable marshes, he defied the Normans. But William was not to be
beaten. He had a number of flat-bottomed boats made, in which he
placed his soldiers. He built a road, supported on wooden .posts, or
piles, two miles long through the marshes, and at last reached the
English camp. Hereward's small forces were destroyed or taken
prisoners, but Hereward himself managed to escape, and continued
the war, landing from his ships upon the sea-coast and attacking the
Norman towns.
At last, weary of pursuing his active enemy, or else thinking that
he could no longer do harm, William made terms with Hereward,
and gave him back his lands, and restored him to his former honours.
ii2 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The English long cherished the memory of the brave soldier who
had fought for their cause after all seemed lost ; and the name of
Hereward the Wake,1 England's Darling, lived long in the hearts of his
countrymen.
But despite the gallantry of Hereward, the Norman power
gradually spread over the whole of England, and not only over
England. Marching into Scotland and into Wales, William defeated
first the Scots and then the Welsh, and spread terror wherever his
name became known. Within five years of the battle of Hastings
William was complete master of the whole of England.
King", Barons, and People.
' ' There never had been a moment from his boyhood when he 2 was
not among the greatest of men." — J. R. Green : " History of the English People."
And now that we have seen what happened after the battle of
Hastings, and how William became a king in fact as well as in name,
it is time to inquire what the Conqueror did with the country he
had conquered, and how he treated the people whom he had
defeated.
It certainly appeared a very gloomy prospect for the English, and
it seems wonderful that such great changes should have taken place
since that time. We know that in our own day the differences which
existed in William's reign have passed away, and that in England
we have but one people, speaking one language, governed by one
law, and under one Sovereign. We shall notice as we read on
how these great changes came about. At first there seemed very
little chance of any of them ever coming about at all, but really
they were already beginning in a way which we can now see and
understand.
We saw that William came over from Normandy accompanied by
a great army of barons, all expecting to be paid for their services,
They thought that because in Normandy they were nearly as great
lords as their duke, and because they had done so much of the
fighting under his leadership, they could make what terms they
liked with William, and that they could compel him to give them
1 "The Wake," meaning Awake, or Watchful,
2 William the Conqueror.
KiNG) BAROXS, AND PEOPLE. 113
whatever they wanted. But in this they were mistaken. William
was determined that whatever he might be in Normandy, he would
ba a real king in England, and it so happened that things made it
easy for him to gain greater power in England than he had ever
had in Normandy.
In the first place, he very wisely said that all the laws of England
should be kept. This meant, however, that they were to be kept
when it was to his advantage that they should be kept, and that they
should only be broken when it suited him.
Now, the English had been accustomed to make payments to
the king and to the nobles for a great many purposes, and when
William had killed their king, Harold, and taken away their land
from their nobles, he declared that the payments which had been
made to the king and to the English nobles should in the future be
made to him only. This gave him very great sums of money, and
money always gives power to him who has it.
Then, again, under the English kings there had been rules by
which every town and district was compelled to send a certain
number of men to fight the king's battles when called upon. William
now said that as he was king these men should be sent to fight his
battles ; and thus he got an army besides the Norman army which
he had brought with him. These English soldiers, though they did
not love William much, hated the Norman barons more, and were
always ready to support the king against his barons.
And lastly, the king, having taken their land from the English,
gave a great deal of it to his followers. When he gave it he made
a bargain with everyone who received land from him that he should
give some service in return, and that this service should be the
sending of a certain number of armed soldiers to fight under the
king's orders in case of need. If this service were not paid, the
land was to be forfeited.
Thus, in many ways, the king got great power into his hands;
and when the Norman barons became, as they often did, dissatisfied
with him, and thought they ought to have a greater share of land or
money, they found they were quite unable to frighten the king into
giving them what they wanted. The king was so much stronger
than they were, that if they threatened him or made war upon him,
he was sure to march against them, defeat their soldiers and burn
their castles.
It is easy to see that the king himself, strong and powerful as he
was, had to depend a great deal upon the conquered English, for
they alone could enable him to*put down the. fierce Norman barons,
1 14 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
who all thought themselves as good as the king. And thus it came
about that very soon the English began to look to William as their
protector; and though they feared him very much, they found that
greater justice was to be got from him, and from the judges whom
he appointed, than from the savage barons who fought each for
himself, and who did not care what injustice they did.
It was in France that William met with his death. He had
gone over to make war upon the King of France. He marched
to Mantes, a town not far from Paris, took the town, and burnt it to.
the ground. But as he rode through the burning streets, his horse,
treading on a hot ember, started violently, and bruised the king.
The injury proved fatal. William was carried to a monastery in
Rouen, and there died on the gth of September, 1087. He was
sixty-one years of age, and had reigned as King of England twenty-
one years.
CHAPTER XIV.
FEUDALISM.
What Feudalism Means.
"Hear, my lord: I become liege-man of yours for life and limb and
earthly regard, and I will keep faith and loyalty to you for life and
death, God help me. " — A Vassal's Oath to his Feudal Lord.
WHENEVER we read the history of the English people and the early
history of England, we are sure to come across the words " Feudal "
and " Feudalism " very often. We shall find a great deal written
about the " Feudal System.'1'' If these words were in common
use now, it would not be necessary to explain what they mean, for
we should often hear them, and should know what they meant ; but
the reason why many of us do not know what the words mean, is
that the things which they describe are things of the past, and no
longer familiar to those who live at the present day.
But there was a time when feudalism and the feudal system were
very important matters in England, and we cannot possibly under-
stand the past history of our country *mless we know something about
WHAT FEUDALISM MEANS. 115
them. This chapter, therefore, will be given up to explaining what
feudalism means, and what the feudal system was.
We have seen how, when William the Conqueror came over
to England, he defeated the English and took from them all their
lands. We saw also how he rewarded his own followers, the Norman
barons, whom he had brought over with him, by giving them a great
part of the land which he had taken from the English.
A VASSAL DOING HOMAGE TO HIS LORD.
But William was a wise man as well as a great soldier. He had no
intention of giving up the lands to his barons without getting back
something in return for what he gave. We know that nowadays
if one man has land which he " lets " to another, he expects to get
in return a payment in money, which is called "w//." And in
the same way, when one man lets a house to another, he expects
n6 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
to receive rent either weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly, according
to the agreement which is made.
But this was not the kind of agreement which was made between
William arid those to whom he gave the land. What he did was
to say to his barons, " I will give you so much land over which
you shall be lord and master ; but if I do you must always give me
certain services in return. In the first place, you must always be
ready, whenever I go to war, to follow me and to fight for me ; and not
only that, but you must bring with you a certain number of armed men
to fight my battles for me. You are to be their chief, but I am to be
your chief and lord. The number of men whom you are to bring
depends upon the size of the piece of land I give you, or upon the
help which you have given me up till now.
"There are several things which you must do besides coming
yourself to fight and bringing your men with you. When my daughter
is married, you must pay a certain sum of money to me in order that
I may be able to give her a good dowry or wedding gift. When my
son comes of age and puts on his armour and becomes a knight, you
must also pay me a sum of money. // / am taken prisoner, you must
pay a sum of money towards my ransom in order that I may be set free."
These were the three things which the person to whom the land
was given generally had to promise to do. They were called the
three " Feudal Aids." Sometimes there were other things, but these
were the commonest. The king who gave the land was called the
"feudal lord," the land which was given was called the "fief," and
the person who received it was called the " vassal," and was said to
hold his fief from the king.
Asa sign that he accepted the land on the conditions laid down,
the vassal knelt before the feudal lord bareheaded and unarmed,
and placed his hands in the hands of his lord, and then made his
promise of obedience in these words : — " Hear, my lord : I become liege
man of yours for life and limb and earthly regard, and I will keep faith
and loyalty to you for life and death, God help me." Then the
feudal lord kissed the vassal, and the vassal became the owner of
the land, and after his death his son succeeded him.
The making of this promise by the vassal to the feudal lord, and
the acceptance by the vassal of his land as a fief from the king as
his feudal lord, was called " doing homage," and every vassal was called
upon to do homage for the land which he held.
But the king was not the only feudal lord. Sometimes, as we
know, a landlord lets a piece of land to another man, who is called
his " tenant," and this tenant again lets it to a third person who,
WHAT FEU b A us M MEANS. n?
becomes tenant of the first tenant. In the same way it often happened
that vassals of the king granted parts of their land to vassals of their
own. These vassals had to make promises to their x lord, just as
he had had to make promises before to the king, and the vassals,
in their turn, only held their lands as long as they performed the
services which they had undertaken to perform.
But King William, and those who came after him, very soon
saw that if they allowed their own vassals to have too many
vassals under them, there would soon grow up a very strong party
who would care little for the king, and a great deal for their feudal
lords.
The kings of England, therefore, always made their under-vassals
pay homage to them as well as to their feudal lords. In the same way,
every man, whether he were a vassal of the king or an under-vassal,
bound himself before all things to serve the king.
This plan of giving of lands in return for the promise of services
was called the " Feudal System," and all through the early part of
English history it was the way in which nearly all the land of England
was held. When the king went to war, he sent notices to his great
vassals bidding them come and bring their soldiers with them. They,
in their turn, sent notices to their under-vassals to come with their
men, and thus the king was able to get together a large army in
a short time, sometimes as many as sixty thousand men.
The chief thing for which the Feudal System was started was to
enable the king always to get a sufficient number of soldiers to
fight h's battles.
CHAPTER XV.
WILLIAM II., THE "RED KING."
1087-1100.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF WILLIAM
RUFUS.
William II. (called " William Rufus "), third
7th
, b. ic
son of William the Conqueror, b. 1060,
became King 1087, d. noo.
Eobert, Duke of Normandy, brother of
William Rufus.
Henry, brother of William Rufus, afterwards
Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, d.
1089.
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Edgar Atheling, son of Edward, and grand-
son of tdmund Ironside.
Gregory VII., Pope, d 1085.
King of England. Urban II., Pope, 1088-1099.
Adela, sister of William Rufus, wife of Stephen, Peter the Hermit (preached the Crusade).
Count of Blois, mother of Stephen,
afterwards King of England.
liB HISTORY OF
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF WILLIAM RUFU&
1087. Willliam II. became King.
1089. Death of Lanfranc.
1091. Cumberland taken from the Scots.
1095. The first Crusade.
1099. Westminster Hall built.
i loo. William II stiot in the New Forest.
1093. Anselm made Archbishop.
The Sons of the Conqueror.
"If anyone would fain learn what manner of man the king wast let
him know that he was of a square-set figure, with ruddy complexion and
yellowish hair, and an overhanging brow ; he had a shifting eye somewhat
bloodshot; his strength was exceptionally great, and that despite his
moderate stature. His stomach protruded slightly. Eloquence he had none,
but had a marked stutter in his speech, especially when angered, "
William of Malmesbury : " Character of William Rufus."
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR had ten children. Of these we may name
Robert ('2), the eldest ; William (3), who became King of England, and
who is known in English history as William Rufus, (1) or " The Red " ;
Henry *4), who also became King of England ; and a daughter named
Adela (5), whom we shall hear of again, and whose son, Stephen (10), also
became King of England.
We must remember that William the First was Duke of Normandy
as well as King of England, and when he died, the question naturally
arose as to who should succeed him as duke and as king. Robert,
being the eldest, would have come first, and William himself declared
that after his death Robert was to become Duke of Normandy. By
the same rule which would have made him Duke of Normandy, he
should also have become King of England.
But the three brothers had very little regard either for their father's
wishes or for each other's rights. Robert's younger brother, William,
came over in all haste to England, and immediately claimed the throne.
He found plenty of supporters. Robert was the leader of the Norman
barons, and the English, who hated the Norman barons, at once took
sides against Robert, and with William. With the aid of the English,
William succeeded in defeating the army of the barons, and in forcing
them to acknowledge him as king.
Nor was he content with being King of England. Normandy had
been left by William the Conqueror to his eldest son. But Robert was
in want of money, and he had sold his right to the duchy to William
The king now hastened over to Normandy to take possession of the
duchy which he had purchased. With the aid of his new English
1 It is said that he got his name from his red complexion.
THE SONS OF THE
119
subjects, who were now seen following the banner of a Norman king,
William obtained a complete victory; the Norman rebels were de-
feated, and Normandy as well as England was compelled to submit
to the " Red King."
William Rufus, a fierce and cruel man, did little good to the country
over which he was king, but his strength of will and his bravery soon
jnade him undisputed master of England.
STONE MARKING THE SPOT WHERE WILLIAM RUFUS WAS KILLED.
One or two things still remain to remind us of his life and death.
Like all the nobles of his time, the king was a great lover of the chase,
and his cruel and selfish nature made him think little of ruining others
to serve his own pleasure.
Great tracts of country were set aside as royal forests. In them no
man was to live. They were to be given up wholly to the deer, the
wolves, and the wild boars which the king delighted to hunt. To kill
the king's game was a crime punishable with death.
120
if is TORY OF ENGLAND.
One of the best known of the great forests thus set aside, or perhaps
enlarged, by William Rufus was in what we now know as the county
of Hampshire. To make this forest, the inhabitants were driven off
thousands of acres of land, their houses were destroyed, and those who
lived in them were turned out into the world to live as best they could,
ANCIENT BUTTRESSES OF WESTMINSTER HALL, NOW COVERED UP.
Everything has a beginning, and eight hundred years ago, in the
time of William Rufus, this great royal forest was new. It was natural
enough, therefore, to call it the " New Forest," and by that name it has
been known down to the present day. When we take the train, and
pass through the beautiful country which lies between Lyndhurst and
WILLIAM RUFUS.
121
Christchurch, in the county of Hampshire, we may remember that we are
passing through the New Forest which William Rufus helped to make.
This bad and selfish act had a consequence which the man who
did it could not foresee, but the act has been a fortunate one for us
who live nowadays.
WESTMINSTER HALL.
In the time of the Norman kings, the crown land of England
belonged to the king, just as any private person's park belongs to him
now, and the king could do what he liked with it. But in the years
which have gone by since the time of William Rufus, there has been
a great change made in this respect. Land which belongs to the
" Crown " now really belongs to the " People," and as it belongs to
122 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
all the people alike, they have a right to prevent private persons from
enclosing it, or keeping people off it.
Anybody can now go freely throughout the whole of the New
Forest, from end to end, and can enjoy the beauties of its scenery.
No bit of land can be sold in the New Forest without the leave of a
Minister appointed by Parliament; and thus, though we have little
enough to thank William Rufus for, we may still thank him for the fact
that, eight hundred years after his death, we are all able to enjoy a
drive or a walk in the New Forest.
It was in this very forest that the king met his death (noo). He
had gone out hunting and did not return. At last his body was found,
pierced by an arrow, lying in the thick of the forest. It has never been
known for certain whether the king was shot by accident, or whether
he was murdered by someone who wished to avenge himself for the
cruelties which had been done to those who had been turned out of
their homes to make room for the wolves and for the deer. But that
William Rufus fell by an arrow in the New Forest is certain.
Westminster Hall.
"It was the great hall of William Rufus, the hall which had re-
sounded with acclamations at the inauguration of thirty kings, the hall
which had witnessed the just sentence of Bacon and the just absolution
of Somers, the hall where the eloquence of Strafford had for a moment
awed and melted a victorious party inflamed with just resentment, the
hall where Charles had confronted the High Court of Justice with the
placid courage which has half redeemed his fame." — Macaulay : "Trial of
Warren Hastings . ' '
One other relic of the reign of William Rufus has come down to us.
Everybody who has been in London knows Westminster Hall. It is the
great hall which leads to the Houses of Parliament. It is very famous
in our English history. Many important trials have taken place there,
and many striking and memorable scenes are connected with it.
Till a few years ago the Courts of Law used to sit in a number of
rooms which were built on the right-hand side of the hall. These
rooms had been built a long time after the rest of the hall. They were
very ugly and very inconvenient, and at last it was decided to pull
them down and to make a new place for the Law Courts where they
now stand, in the Strand, in London.
WESTMINSTER HALL.
123
When the buildings were pulled down, underneath the walls were
found a number of great buttresses, supporting the side of West-
minster Hall. The buttresses were very old, and the stone was
crumbling. It was plain that they were the very oldest part of the
great hall. A clever architect was asked when they had been put
up, and he said that they were part of the old wall which had been
built by William Rufus. The stone of which the buttresses were
made was so worn that it was not possible to leave them in the
state in which they had been found. They were therefore
strengthened, and covered up with fresh stone. But the shape of
the old buttresses was kept, and we can still see them any day if
we go down to Westminster. On preceding pages we see pictures
of Westminster Hall and of William Rufus' s buttresses,
CHAPTER XVI.
HENRY I.
1100-1135.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF HENRY
Henry I. (called " Beauclerc "), fourth son
of William the Conqueror and brother
of William Rufus, b. 1068, became
King i zoo, d. 113";.
Matilda, daughter of Malcolm Canmore,
King of Scotland, wife of Henry, m.
noo, d. 1118.
William, son of Henry I., drowned 1120.
Matilda, daughter of Henry I., d. 1167.
The Emperor Henry V., first husband of
Matilda, d. 1125.
Geoffrey Of AnjOU, second husband of
Matilda, m. 1127.
Robert, elder brother of Henry, Duke of
Normandy, d 1135.
Adela, sister of Henry.
Stephen Of Blois, husband of Adela.
Stephen Of BloiS, son of Stephen and
Adela, afterwards King of England, b.
Edgar Atheling, son of Edward and grand-
son of Edmund Ironside, taken prisoner
1106.
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, d. nog.
Edgar, King of Scotland, brother of Matilda,
Queen of England, d. 1107.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY I.
noo. Henry seizes the Crown of England.
Henry grants a Charter of Liberties.
Henry marries Matilda,
noi. Henry acknowledged King of England
by Robert.
1104. Rebellion of the Barons under Robert.
1 106. Battle of Tenchebrai and capture Of
Robert.
Edgar Atheling taken prisoner,
mi. Henry marches into Wales, and plants
a Flemish colony at Haverford-west,
in Pembrokeshire.
1114. Matilda, Henry's daughter, marries
the Emperor, Henry V.
1118. Death of Queen Matilda.
Revolt of the Barons.
1120. Wreck of the "White Ship.
1125. Death of the Emperor Henry.
1127. Marriage of Matilda to Geoffrey (Plan
tagenet), Count of Anjou.
1133. Henry, son of Matilda, afterwards
Henry II. of England, born.
1134. Rebellion in Wales.
1135. Death of Henry 1.
124 HlSTOR\ OF ENGLAND
Englishmen and Normans.
"By easy stages we may trace
Our Saxon-Danish-Norman-English race.'
WHEN William Rufus was dead, the question arose as to who should
succeed him as King of England.
It must be remembered that W7illiam the Conqueror had four sons l
— Robert (-\ Richard, William^, and Henry (4) — Robert and Henry now re-
mained, after the death of their brothers. Robert was the elder, and
ought, by rights, to have become king; but Robert's friends were
mostly in Normandy, and Henry's were in England. With the aid
of his English friends, Henry seized the crown and proclaimed
himself king. He reigned for thirty-five years, and, on the whole,
his reign was a good one.
It is not necessary to follow Henry into all the wars which he
fought, in England and in Normandy, nor to trouble ourselves about
quarrels which are long forgotten. The chief point we have to notice
is that during his reign the mixing together of the Normans and the
English really began, and that the king himself was foremost to set an
example of friendship between his subjects.
We saw in the last chapter how the Norman Conquest had led
to a great division in England — the Norman barons and their French
followers on the one hand, and the defeated English on the other.
Normans and English kept apart from each other; the Normans
despising the Englishmen, and the Englishmen hating and fearing
the Normans.
We know well enough that nowadays there is no distinction be-
tween Norman and English ; they are one people, with one law and
one language. The two peoples have become so mixed together that
they are now really and truly one.
It was in the time of Henry the First that this mixing together
of Normans and English first began. Henry, like William the Con-
queror, saw very plainly that if he wanted to become a strong king,
and to be able to hold his own against the Norman barons, he must
make friends with the English, and look to them for support. In
order, therefore, to obtain their goodwill, he decided to do a thing
1 William I. had altogether ten children.
ENGLISHMEN AND NORMANS. 125
which at once won the hearts of his English subjects. He married
Matilda, an English princess.
Who was this Princess Matilda ? Let us see if we can trace back
her history. In Chapter XIII. we read of a prince named Edgar Atheling,
the grandson of Edmund Ironside. We saw how the hopes of the
English were fixed on him as the last of their royal family, and how,
despite the bravery of Here ward, he was at last forced to give in to
the Normans. Edgar Atheling had a sister named Margaret, who had
married Malcolm, King of Scotland. Malcolm and Margaret had a
daughter, and this daughter was Matilda, who was now to become
the bride of the Norman king. It was, of course, a great joy to the
English that a true English woman, the niece of their own prince,
Edgar Atheling, should be raised to the throne. But while the Eng-
lish rejoiced, the Norman barons could not hide their anger when
they saw their duke take as his wife one of the people whom they
despised, and whom they had so deeply wronged.
It soon became plain that Henry had done wisely in thus choosing
his wife. It was no small thing to have won the goodwill of the
English. They only wanted leaders, such as William the Conqueror
and Henry, to make them some of the best soldiers in Europe.
And this the king's Norman enemies soon found, to their cost.
A number of the barons, friends of the king's brother Robert, rose in
revolt against the king. Then Henry called to his aid his English
subjects, and marching against his enemies, won a complete victory
over them. The English, who at last had an opportunity of revenging
themselves on their Norman oppressors, fought gladly under the king's
banner.
But though Robert's friends were the weaker, Robert himself
still kept up the war in Normandy. Henry crossed the Channel,
took Robert prisoner, and defeated his army at the battle of Tenchebrai
(1106). Robert was imprisoned by his brother in Cardiff Castle, and
remained in prison for the rest of his life. He died twenty-eight
years after the battle of Tenchebrai. The capture of Robert allowed
Henry to make himself master of Normandy.
We shall remember that Henry had married Matilda. His daughter
was called " Matilda," <7) after her mother. While quite young,
this little girl was married to Henry the Fifth (8), Emperor of Germany.
Besides his daughter, Henry had also a son named William, of whom
he was very fond. He hoped that William would become king after
his death ; but this was not to be.
126 HISTORY OF ENGLAND,
" The White Ship," and the Sprig" of " Broom.5'
"Tuuas vain : the loud waves lashed the shore,
Return or aid preventing :
The waters wild went o'er his child,
And he was left lamenting."
Campbell : " Lord Ullin's Daughter.'''
In the year 1120 the king was on his way back from Normandy,
accompanied by his son. In one ship sailed the king, in another,
called the " White Ship" was William, with a party of his friends.
The king's ^hip started first on her journey, the " White Ship "
followed. Her fifty rowers rowed with all their might to overtake
the king's vessel. The prince and his companions made merry on
board. Suddenly the " White Ship " struck on a rock and began
to fill rapidly with water. A boat was lowered, and Prince William
was placed in it.
It seemed as if he were saved, but as he left the side of the
" White Ship " he heard the cries of his sister Mary, who had been left
on board. The prince ordered the boatmen to return ; but no sooner
was the boat alongside the sinking ship than those on board the
wreck sprang into the little boat. In a moment she was upset, and in
a few minutes the whole of the gay company who had started that
night from Barfleur was .overwhelmed in the waves. One man
alone, Berauld, a poor butcher, regained the shore.
Soon the news reached the English Court, but for a long time
no one dared to tell Henry of his son's death. At last the terrible
news was broken to him. The king was overcome with grief; not
only did he lament the death of a son whom he dearly loved, but
he foresaw that now that he had no longer an heir there would be
no peace after his death. So great was the king's grief, that it is
said that after hearing the fatal news he was never seen to smile
again.
Although Henry had no son, we must not forget that he had
a daughter, Matilda, who had been married to Henry V. of Germany.
The Emperor Henry soon died, and left his young empress a widow.
But she did not remain long unmarried, for she soon became the bride
of Geoffrey,(9) Count of Anjou. Anjou was a great province in FrancCj
of which Angers and Tours were the principal towns.
" THE WHITE SHIP" AND THE SPRIG OF "BROOM" 127
There is not much to be told in this story about Geoffrey of Anjou,
but there is one thing which we may remember him by. We
often in English history meet with the word " Plantagenet." King
Henry II. <ll>, Richard I. <13>, John <17>, and all the kings down to
the accession of Henry VII. (48), are spoken of as Plantagenet Kings, or
kings of the Plantagenet family. What is the meaning of Plantagenet ?
THE PRINCIPAL PROVINCES OF FRANCE.
The word is taken from the Latin Planta genista, which means the
common " Broom" plant. Most of us know the common broom, with
its bright yellow flowers. It happened that Geoffrey of Anjou was
accustomed to wear in his helmet as a crest or sign a sprig of yellow
broom. From this, people began to call him " Plantagenet," or the
Wearer of the Broom. The Empress Matilda married Geoffrey
128
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Plantagenet, and their son Henry became Henry II., King of England.
And thus it is that Henry II. is known in English history as Henry
Plantagenet.
In England it has always been the rule that the eldest son of
the king or his children should come to the throne on the death
of the king, and that if the king has no son or grandson, but only
a daughter, then the daughter shall come to the throne and be
queen. It is because of this rule that we have had several Queens of
England— Queen Mary, the great Queen Elizabeth, and Queen Victoria.
But in France there was a different rule from that which we have
in England. This rule was called the " Salic Law." It prevented a
woman from coming to the
throne of France, and so
there have been no queens of
France. As Henry I. had no
son, after the death of William
his daughter Matilda would
have come to the throne
after his death according to
the English rule.
But England and France
were so much bound together
at that time that it was not
wonderful that many people
should have said that the
French rule ought to be followed in England, and that there should be
no queen. There was one person who was very much in favour of
the French rule, and this was Stephen of Blois (10), the nephew of
Henry I. We need not go far to find out what was Stephen's reason
for believing that the French rule was the best. If the French rule
were followed, Stephen himself would become King of England, and his
cousin Matilda would be prevented from coming to the throne.
Soon a fierce quarrel broke out between the friends of Stephen and
the friends of Matilda, and the last years of Henry I. were made
miserable by the constant quarrels among his relations.
King Henry died (1135) at the age of sixty-seven years, after a reign
of thirty-five years. He was a wise king and a learned man, and his
learning won for him the name of Beauclerc, or " The Scholar." Un-
luckily, the times in which he lived were times in which the sword
had more power than the pen.
PLANT A GENISTA, A SPRIG OF "BROOM.'
I29
CHAPTER XVII.
KING STEPHEN.
1135-1154.
.FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF KING STEPHEN.
Henry, son of Matilda, afterwards Henry
II., King of England.
David, King of Scotland, became King 1124.
Innocent II., Pope 1130.
Adrian IV., or Nicholas Brakespeare, the
'Stephen, son of Stephen of Blois, and Adela,
nephew of Henry I., b. 1094, became
King 1135, d. 1154.
Matilda, or Maud, daughter of Henry I.,
cousin of Stephen, and wife of
Geoffrey Plantagenet.
only English Pope, 1154.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF STEPHEN.
1 135. Stephen crowned King in London.
1136. Stephen's title to the crown confirmed
by Pope Innocent II.
1138. David of Scotland invades England in
support of the claim of his niece
Matilda.
The Scots defeated in the Battle of
the Standard.
1139. Matilda lands in England. Civil war
commences.
1141. Stephen taken prisoner by the Earl of
Gloucester at Lincoln.
Matilda enters London. [the city.
The Londoners diive Matilda out of
1141. Matilda besieged at Winchester, and
escapes.
Earl of Gloucester taken prisoner.
Stephen regains the Crown.
1142. Escape of Matilda from Oxford.
1144. Stephen excommunicated by the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury.
Quarrel with the Church.
1152. Henry, son of Matilda, marries Eleanor
of France.
1153. Henry lands in England with an army.
1153. Treaty of Wallingford. Stephen recog-
nises Henry as his successor.
1154. Death of Stephen.
A Miserable Reign.
"On the death of King Henry, who had given peace to the realm and
was the father of his people, his loss threw the whole kingdom into
trouble and confusion. During his reign the law was purely administered
in the seats of justice ; but when he was removed, iniquity prevailed and
they became the seed-beds of corruption. Thenceforth, England, befote
the resting-place of right, the habitation of peace, and the mirror of
piety, was converted into an abode of malignity, a theatre of strife,
and a school of rebellion. The sacred bonds of mutual concord before
reverenced by the nation, were rent asunder ; the ties of near relationship
were dissolved, and the people, long clothed in the garments of peace,
clamoured and became frantic for war." — Acts of King Stephen.
THIS is going to be a very short chapter, about a reign in which tnfc
people of England went through great suffering and misery, a feign
F
130 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
which has left very little mark behind it, whether for good or for
evil. It is the reign of Stephen (10), who came to the throne on the
death of his uncle, Henry I., in the year 1135, and who reigned nineteen
years. During nearly the whole of Stephen's reign there was a
fierce war going on in England between Stephen and his friends on
the one side, and the Empress Matilda, the daughter of Henry I., on
the other side. Sometimes one party gained the day, and sometimes
HARLECH CASTLE.
the other ; but whatever happened, the unfortunate people of England
suffered. The barons built great castles, where they lived safely behind
their strong stone walls. From these castles they sallied forth to rob
and plunder all those who were defenceless and who were worth
robbing.
A terrible description has been given of the state of England at
this time. This is what the writer tells us of the cruelties of the
savage barons: — "They hanged up men by their feet, and smoked
them with foul smoke. Some were hanged up by their thumbs, others
by the head, and burning things were hung on to their feet. . . .
They put men into prison where adders, and snakes, and toads
were crawling, and so they tormented them." And the barons did
many terrible things besides these, about all of which the writer of
whom we have spoken tells us in his book. At last the great quarrel
between Stephen and Matilda came to an end. A treaty was made
A MISERABLE REIGN. 131
at Wallingford (1153). It was agreed that Stephen should be king as long
as he lived, and that after his death, Henry, who was Matilda's son,
should become king.
There is one more point to be noted with respect to this young
Henry, of whom we shall read more in the next chapter. We said that,
though Geoffrey of Anjou was not a very important person, we should
hear something more of him in this book. Geoffrey, it must be
remembered was the second husband of Matilda, and the father of
the young Henry.
It was Geoffrey who carried a Sprig of Broom in his helmet, and
who got the name of "Plantagenet" He was Geoffrey Plantagenet,
and his son Henry was Henry Plantagenet. So we see that there
was to be a change in the family from which the Kings of England
came. Stephen was of the same family as William the Conqueror.
He was his grandson ; but when Stephen died his family ended, and
another family came in, the family of the Plantagenets, and Henry
was the first Plantagenet King. His mother, Matilda, was the
granddaughter of William the Conqueror, but his father was a
Count of Anjou.
Stephen died in the year 1154, having reigned eighteen years.
CHAPTER XVIII.
HENRY II.
1 154- 1 189.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF HENRY II.
Henry II. (Henry Plantagenet), son of j Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, d. 1161.
Geoffrey of Anjou and Matilda, ! Thomas A'Becket, Archbishop of Canter-
aod grandson of Henry I., b. 1133, | bury 1162, murdered 1170.
became King 11341 d. 1189, reigned
35 years.
Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of Henry II.,
formerly wife of Louis VII. of France,
m. 1152, d. 1204.
Henry, son of Henry II., d. 1183.
Richard, son of Henry II., afterwards King
of England.
Geoffrey, son of Henrv II., d. 1186.
John, son of Henry II., afterwards King of
England.
Frederick Barbarossa, the great Emperor
* of Germany, who quarrelled with Pope
Alexander III., d. 1190.
Pope Adrian IV. (Nicholas Brakespeare),
the only Englishman elected Pope,
d. 1159.
Pope Alexander III. 1159.
Malcolm IV., King of Scotland, d. 1165.
William the Lion, King of Scotland.
Roger Hoveden, of Howden, in Yorkshire.,
wrote the history of these times, d.
132
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY II.
1154. Henry II. becomes King. ] 1169.
1155. Pope Adrian IV. givis Henry leave to
invade Ireland.
1156. Henry df'eats his brother Geoffrey and
makes him resign his claim to Anjou. 1170.
1157. Expejition into Wales.
1160. Henry collects a tax from every vassal,
under the name ot " scutage."
1161. Death of Theobald, Archbishop of
Canterbury. 1171.
1162. Peace with France.
Two rival Popes elected in the same
year.
Thomas A'Becket made Archbishop of
Canterbury. JI73.
1163. Beginning of quarrel betwe;n Henry
and Becket. "74-
1 1 64 . Constitutions of Clarendon. 1183.
Becke 's flight. 1188.
1165. Malcolm IV., King of Scotland dies. 1189.
The Welsh defeat an English army at
Corwen.
1168. Dermott McMurragh, King of Leinster,
does homage to King Henry.
Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, lands
at Waterford.
Meeting between Henry and Becket at
Montmirail, in France.
Becket returns to England.
Becket excommunicates his enemies.
Ben»y expresses .his anger against
Becket.
December sgth, murder of Becket.
Henry lands near Waterford, and re-
ceives the submission of the Irish
Princes.
John, son of Henry, made Lord of
Ireland.
William the Lion King of Scotland,
taken prisoner at Alnwick.
Burning of Canterbury Cathedral.
Death of Henry? son of the King.
War with the King of France.
Richard and John, the King's sons,
join his enemies.
William the Lion, King of Scotland,
released.
Death of Henry II.
Canterbury Cathedral.
". . . . the architect
Built his great heart into these sculptured stones. "
Longfellow : " The Golden Legend."
I WANT my readers to come a short journey with me. We will start
from Victoria Station in London, and will take tickets by the express
train on the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway. In about an
hour and a half the train stops. We are at Canterbury. We alight,
and a short walk brings us to the door of the great cathedral of
Canterbury, the Metropolitan Church of England.
Let us pause for a moment before we enter, and look at the
wonderful building, with its three towers, its graceful windows, and
its beautiful carving. It must have been a famous architect who
built Canterbury Cathedral. Who was he ? Does history tell us
anything about him ? Yes, certainly it does ; and, unfortunately for
our pride as Englishmen, history tells us that it was no countryman
of ours who planned the greater part of the stately church.
The greater part of the cathedral of Canterbury as we now see
it was built in the year 1174. A short time before, there had been
CA A~ TER n UR Y CA THEDR A L .
'33
a great fire, and part of the old building (for Canterbury Cathedral was
old 700 years ago) was burnt to the ground. It was necessary to find
a good architect to do the work. At last it was decided to employ a
Frenchman, named William, who came from the town of Sens, in the
North of France, and who is generally known as William of Sens. Now
we know who the architect was and where he came from, we shall
not be surprised to learn another thing about the cathedral. Can-
terbury Cathe-
dral is a most
beautiful build-
ing, as everyone
who has seen it
knows; but
beautiful though
it be, it is not
the only church
of its kind
in the world ;
there is another
like it.
If, instead of
stopping at Can-
terbury station
we had gone on
in the train to
Dover, had
crossed over the
English Channel
to Calais, and
had taken the
train through the
north of France, we should have come, after a long journey, to the
town of Sens. There we should see another cathedral, not quite
so beautiful, perhaps, as the one at Canterbury, but still very much
like it. Many parts of it, indeed, are exactly the same as parts of our
English cathedral ; the shape of the windows is the same, the carvings
are the same. It is plain that either Sens has been copied from
Canterbury, or Canterbury from Sens.
Now that we know who it was that planned the chancel of Canter-
bury Cathedral, we can easily guess that it was Canterbury which was
copied from Sens, or, rather, that William of Sens, when he was
brought over to work in England, thought the best thing he could
rANTKKWKY ( ATI I KI)U AL.
'34
Jf/ STORY
do was to repeat at Canterbury the beautiful work he had done in
his own country.
Before we go inside the cathedral, let us stop to ask whether there
is anything else which we already know about it. We must carry our
minds back into the history of England even further than the time
of William the Conqueror.
We must go back to the very beginning of our history, to the days
when Augustine, the Roman
bishop, came into our land,
and taught to the Saxon
people of Kent the story
of Christ. It was to Canter-
bury that Augustine came,
and it was there that, by
permission of King .SJthel-
bert, he built the church
which was to become the
centre of all the Christian
churches of England.
From the time of
Augustine down to our
own day, the city of Can-
terbury has been the home
of the archbishops of the
English Church. It is the
story of one of the greatest
of these archbishops that
we are now going to read.
And now let us go
inside the doors. We
walk up the long nave,1
go up a few steps, and
THK CATHEDRAL OF SENS. tUMl to the left into a
(From a photograph by E. DoHtenvill, Pa> is.) little chapel at the side.
Let us stop here for a
moment, and if we have a knowledge of English history, and especially
of that part of English history which has to do with the cathedral
C
1 The "nave" of a church is the part marked A. The part
marked B is called the " chancel." C C are rhe " transepts."
THE KING AND THE ARCHBISHOP. 135
of Canterbury, we shall most certainly give a thought to a terrible
event which once took place upon the very spot on which we now
stand.
For here, in the very midst of the great cathedral, was committed
a savage and dreadful murder, which seven hundred years ago startled
all Europe, and which filled the people of England with wonder and
alarm.
What is this terrible story ? Whose blood was it that was shed
here ? And who were the men who did this violent deed within the
walls of the cathedral itself? That is what we are now going
to read.
The King and the Archbishop.
" Law in his voice and fortune in his hand,
To him the Church, the realm, their powers consign;
Through him the rays of regal bounty shine,
Turned by his nod the stream of honour flows,
His smile alone security bestows:
Still to new heights his restless wishes tower,
Claim leads to claim and power advances power,
Till conquest unresisted ceased to please,
And right submitted, left him none to seize."
Johnson : " Vanity of Human Wishes."
When, to the great joy of all men, King Stephen died, there followed
him on the throne of England a king whose name ought not to be
forgotten by those who read the history of England. This king was
Henry II.'11', the son of Matilda, and the cousin of Stephen. He came
to the throne in the year 1154, and reigned thirty-five years. He was
a man of great courage, wisdom, and strength of mind. Like most
other men, he had many good, and at the same time many bad,
qualities. His reign was one of great difficulty and trial, and though
he was successful in many things, and overcame many of his enemies,
he had great disappointments, and died defeated and miserable.
There is not room in this book to tell the whole story of the long
reign of Henry II., so we will content ourselves with that part of it
which has to do with Canterbury Cathedral and its great archbishop.
136 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
But first, let us try to understand what sort of a man King Henry
was. Even though he lived so long ago, we can picture him to our-
selves, for those who knew him well have left us an account of his
appearance which tells us almost as truly as a photograph what the
king was like.
A man rather above middle height, square, and solidly built, and
rather stout. His head was round and well shapen, his short reddish
BISHOP AND BARONS IN THE TIME OF THE NORMANS.
hair sprinkled with grey. His face was fiery, or, as a more polite
writer of his time describes it, " lion-like." His eyes were grey, but
often rather bloodshot. He was short-necked and square-chested, his
hands were coarse and clumsy. Such was Henry II., as drawn by
those who saw him from day to day.
And now we come to the other great personage of his reign. In
the year 1118 there was born a child called Thomas Becket, or Thomas
A'Becket. Thomas's father was a Norman by birth, and came from the
town of Rouen, but he had lived long in England, and had become so
good an Englishman, and was so much liked by his neighbours, that
THE KING AND THE ARCHBISHOP. 137
he had been made Port Reeve, or, as we should now call it, Mayor, of
the City of London.
Thomas soon showed signs that he was a clever boy, and his
cleverness won for him the friendship of Theobald, Archbishop of
Canterbury. He became a priest, and was sent by the archbishop
on several important journeys to Rome. Soon he attracted the at-
tention of the king, who was struck by his cleverness and by his
agreeable character. It was not long before he received from Henry
a great mark of his favour, for he was made Chancellor, or Keeper of
the King's Seal : an office of great dignity and importance.
Many stories are told of Thomas A'Becket and his life at this
time. He lived in great luxury, keeping hundreds of servants and
many horses, and rivalling the king himself in the splendour of his
house. During this time King Henry and Becket agreed together well
enough — so well, indeed, that King Henry, not content with making
his favourite Chancellor, raised him to the still higher office of Arch-
bishop of Canterbury. From that day there came a change, and enmity
arose between the king and the archbishop, which only ended in the
death of the latter.
In order to understand how it was that King Henry and Thomas
A'Becket quarrelled, and how it was that the archbishop came to
lose his life as the result of the quarrel, we must try to understand
something of what was going on in England at the time in which
Henry and Becket lived.
The days of Henry II. were days in which much violence and
cruelty were practised by those who were strong against those who
were weak. The Norman barons, living in their strong castles and
clothed in suits of armour, cared little for the sufferings of the poorer
and worse-armed people among whom they lived. The king himself
was wiser than the barons. He knew that he would be stronger if
he did justice to all, and did not give himself up altogether to the
wishes of the barons. He tried, therefore, in many ways to make
laws which should do justice to everybody in the kingdom. But
though he often wished to do well, it was not always easy even for
a good king in such a time to protect the poor and the defenceless.
There was, however, another great power in England beside the
king and the barons, which we must know something about if we
want to understand rightly the history of England. This power was
the power of the Church. It was felt not only in England, but in
France, in Germany, in Italy, and in Spain. At the head of the
Church was the Pope in Rome, and in England there were the
archbishops, the bishops, and the clergy in all parts of the country.
F*
138 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
In many ways the Church was very different then from what it is
now. It was the Churchmen 1 who alone opened schools, who taught
people how to read and write; and, indeed, there were very few
except the clergy who could read or write at all. All over England
there were great abbeys and monasteries, in which there lived priests,
monks, and nuns. In these abbeys and monasteries books were to
be found and teaching was to be got.
Nor was this all. In many of the churches there was a place
called a Sanctuary, to which anyone who was in danger of his life
might fly, and in which he was safe from harm. At a time when so
much injustice was done, and when so many cruel men used their
power to injure the weak and defenceless, it was a great thing to
have places to which those who were persecuted could go, and in
which they could be safe. In an age, too, when there was so much
ignorance, it was a good thing that there should be men who could
teach reading and writing, and who could prevent the learning of
all the wise men who had gone before from being forgotten.
And last of all, but most important of all, it was a good thing
that in the midst of so much violence and cruelty there should be
men and women who tried to teach the difference between right and
wrong, between good and evil, and who kept England a Christian
land. It is not wonderful, therefore, that when the Churchmen did
all these things, they should be looked upon with favour and treated
with honour.
But, unluckily, it often happens that too much good fortune
spoils men. The clergy became so great and so powerful that many
of them forgot that it was their duty to help and protect the poor
against the strong. And not only did the clergy get strong, but they
soon got very rich, and many of the abbeys and monasteries had
lands of great extent; and thus it happened that in the time of
Henry II. the Church of England did both harm and good. When
it protected the poor, taught those who were ignorant, and set an
example of a holy life, it did good. When it joined with the king
and the barons to try to get riches and power, or when it tried to
get power for itself, it did harm.
1 It should be understood that in the time of Henry II. a "Churchman" meant not only a
priest or clergyman, but anyone who was in any way in the service of the Church. Monks,
clerks, teachers, and often the servants of a church or monastery, were called " Churchmen," and
had the right to be tried in the bishop's Court. The fact that a man could read and write was
often held to be proof that he was a Churchman. We must remember these things in order that
we may understand what is said in this chapter.
139
The Quarrel.
" Ye tahe too much upon you, ye sons of Leui."
Numbers xvi. 7.
And now we come back to the day on which Henry II. made
Thomas A'Becket Archbishop of Canterbury, and put him at the head
of the Church we have been talking about. We have seen that while
he was Chancellor, Becket was gay and fond of pleasure, a friend
of the king, and ready to share with him in all his sports. But from
the very day on which Becket was made Archbishop of Canterbury
it seemed as if a change had come over him. From that day he gave
up all his time to trying to strengthen the Church, to give it more
power, and to make it free from all interference, on the part either
of the king or of the barons.
It was not long before the new archbishop and the king found
cause for a quarrel. The Church at that time claimed that all
clergymen, and everybody who was connected with the Church in
any way, should only be tried, in case they committed offences, by
judges belonging to the Church. They said that the king's Courts,
in which persons who had committed crimes were usually tried,
had no power over those who belonged to the Church, and that
the king's judges had no right to try Churchmen. Now, it is easy
to see that there was sure to be a quarrel before long over this
claim made by the Church to set up its own judges, and to have
its own courts of justice.
We saw that Henry was doing his best to improve the Courts
of Justice in England, and to appoint Judges who would do justice
to all alike. When the king's Courts decided against any man
who was accused of a crime, they were able to punish him. And
so also when two persons who had a dispute came before the king's
Courts to have their case tried, the one who was declared to be
in the right was able to make the other give up his claim, and do
what the Court said was just.
But when King Henry found that Becket would not allow Church-
men to be tried by the judges, he was angry ; for he said that every
man, rich or poor, Churchman or not, ought to be equal "in the
king's Courts and obey the order of the judges. Becket, on his
side, would not give way, and refused to allow Churchmen to go
into the king's Courts.
140
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
There was also another cause of quarrel between the king and
the archbishop. Many of the bishops and other clergy had great
quantities of land. We read in Chapter XIV. that in feudal tim 3 every
man who had land had to " do homage for it" Henry said that the
Churchmen ought to do " homage " to him for their land ; Becket
said that they should not do so. Then Henry called together a
meeting of the barons, and he made a set of rules or laws. The place
A BISHOP'S COURT IN NORMAN TIMES.
at which the meeting of the barons was held was called Clarendon, and
the rules that were made there were known as " The Constitutions of
Clarendon" (1164). One of these rules was that Churchmen should be
tried in the king's Courts when they had committed crimes. Another
was that all Churchmen should do homage to the king for their
lands.
It is not easy now, so long after these things happened, to say
whether Henry or Becket was in the right. In those days things were
very different from what they are now. The judges whom the king
appointed were not always just, nor did they always know the law.
Sometimes, no doubt, justice was better done in the courts in which
THE QUARREL. 141
the bishops were the judges than in the king's Courts. Besides,
it must be remembered that it was no new thing for which Becket
fought, for at the time in which he lived the courts held by the Church
were to be found in every country in Europe, and in every country
Churchmen had the right to be tried and condemned only by
Churchmen.
Of course, in our own time it would be quite wrong for Churchmen
to refuse to be judged in the same courts as other people. In our
own time, happily, the judges are just; they know the law, and they do
justice equally to all men, rich or poor, whether they be Churchmen or
whether they be not. If we can find excuses for Thomas A' Becket, we
certainly ought not to blame Henry because he tried to make all
people equal before the law.
But though it may be doubtful whether Henry or Becket was
most in the right, one thing is certain, and that is that the king
and the archbishop soon quarrelled with one another. In his anger,
the king banished Becket from the land. The archbishop fled to
the town of Sens, in Normandy.1
After a time Henry and Becket became friends again, and Henry
gave Becket leave to return to England. Becket crossed over, leaving
Henry behind in France. When the archbishop came to Canterbury,
thousands of people came out to welcome him back. The poor people
looked upon him as their friend and protector against the barons.
When Henry heard of the way in which Becket had been welcomed
back, he flew into a great rage. He could not bear that a man who
had been his enemy, and who had dared to disobey him, should
be so beloved.
In his anger, Henry broke out into wild, hasty words. His eyes
flamed and his face grew pale with passion. " What f" cried he, "a
fellow that has eaten my bread has lifted up his heel against me—
a fellow that I loaded with benefits, dares insult the king and the whole
royal family, and tramples on the whole kingdom — a fellow that came to
Court on a lame horse, with a cloak for a saddle, sits on the throne itself,
and no man .interferes P What sluggard wretches/" he cried, "what
cowards have I brought up in my Court, who care nothing for their duty
to their master-' Not one will deliver me from this low-born priest!"
We cannot tell whether the king really wished that someone should
take him at his word. We sometimes make hasty speeches and say
things which we hope others will act upon, though we dare .not act
upon them ourselves ; and then, when others have done the harm
1 It was here that Becket met with William of Sens, who, we saw, came over to England,
and rebuilt a great part of the cathedral of Canterbury, in imitation of his own cathedral at Sens;
142 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
which we wished, but were afraid to do, we try to pretend to our-
selves that it is not we who are to blame. And so, perhaps, when
Henry, in his anger, cried out, " Not one will deliver me from this
low-born priest ! " he half hoped that some of those who stood by
would take him at his word, and commit a crime which he was
ashamed and afraid to commit himself.
It happened that there stood among the king's courtiers four
knights — Hugh de Morville, William de Tracy, Richard le Bret, Reginald
Fitzurse.1 The four knights overheard the king's words, and it was
not long before they had formed a cruel plot to murder Bechet, and
thus to "deliver" the king from the " low-born priest."
Two reasons joined together to urge them to commit this crime.
In the first place, no doubt they loved the king a little, for he was their
lord, and they depended upon his favour. In the second place, they
hated Becket far more than they loved the king. When he had been
Chancellor, Thomas had despised the fierce barons, and had enjoyed
the favour of the king. Since he became archbishop he had made
many of the barons give up the lands which they had taken from
the Church, and he had often helped those whom the barons had
oppressed.
And so it happened that the hasty words of King Henry had
fallen into the hearts of men who wanted no persuading to kill the
king's enemy. Mounting their horses, the four knights rode off at full
speed to the sea-coast. There they took ship across the Channel,
and on a cold dreary day at the end of December, 1170, they came
within sight of the three great towers of Canterbury Cathedral.
We now come to the story of the terrible deed which they did
on that wintry day within the walls of the great cathedral.
1 Fitzurse means " Son of the Bear," a name which well suited the savage Norman knight to
whom it belonged. The English hotie of the Fitzurses is called to this day Bear -ham, or the
village of the Bears. Some of the Fitzurses crossed into Ireland, and there their name took an
Irish form, and they became tVe founders of the well-known family of the MacMaliOIlS — Mac-
Mahou meaning in Irish exactly the same as Fitzurse in Norman : viz., " the Son q/ the Bear"
The Murder.
" Where is the Archbishop, Thomas Becket ? '''
"Here.
No traitor to the King, but Priest of God,
Private of England. I am he ye seek.
What would ye haue of me ? "
" Your life. "
Tennyson : "Becket.
It was late in the evening of the 2gth December, when the winter's
night was already setting in, that the dwellers in the archbishop's
palace were suddenly alarmed. A crash was heard as the wooden
door of the orchard outside was broken down, and soon it was known
by all that the archbishop's enemies were outside, longing to get in,
and to take the life of the man whom they hated.
Many of the monks who surrounded Becket fled like cowards at the
approach of danger. Some few stood by their master, and did all they
could to get him to take refuge in the cathedral. Within its walls they
thought he would be safe. But, great as the danger was, Becket
scorned to fly. He walked calmly along the passage which led into
the cathedral. Before him walked an attendant bearing the cross,
which was always carried before the archbishop.
At last, however, the frightened monks could no longer bear the
slow pace at which the archbishop advanced, and they half-dragged
and half-carried him into the cathedral. They shut the door and
turned the key. Soon cries were heard outside. It was the four
knights and their friends, who were driving before them the friends
of the archbishop, and who were seeking to find their way into the
cathedral.
When Becket heard the cries of his own friends outside, he bade
those who were with him throw open the door, in order that those who
were in danger might escape from the fury of the knights. But this
brave act cost the archbishop his life. No sooner had the door been
thrown open than Fitzurse and his companions rushed in.
Then all but the bravest fled from the archbishop's side, and he
was left alone with but three faithful friends : Robert of Merton, his old
teacher ; William FitzStephen, his chaplain ; and Edward Grim, a Saxon
monk. With these three Becket reached the little chapel on the left-
hand side of the cathedral, of which we read at the beginning of this
chapter, and there the four murderers found him.
144
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
It was nearly dark, and at first the knights could not see Becket.
" Where is Thomas Becket, traitor to the king ? " cried one of them.
Then Fitzurse exclaimed, " Where is the archbishop ? " Becket knew
the voice. "Reginald, here am /," said he: "no traitor, but the arch-
bishop and the priest of God. What do you wish ? " As he said these
words he advanced towards Fitzurse, who sprang back.
The four knights then began to upbraid Becket, and to bid him
KING HENRY S PENANCE.
undo the harm that he had done. " I cannot do other than I have done,"
replied the archbishop. " Reginald, you have received many favours at
my hands; why do you come armed into my churcJi ? " For answer,
Fitzurse placed his axe against Becket's breast, saying, " You shall
die!"
Another of the knights struck him with the flat of his sword, and
told him to fly, or he was a dead man. " / am ready to die for God
and the Church,'" was the archbishop's answer. Then the knights fell
upon him, and tried to drag him outside, for they feared to kill him in
the church. But Becket was a strong man, and resisted their efforts.
THE MURDER. 145
There was a fierce struggle, and at last Fitzurse, mad with passion,
cried out, " Strike I Strike ! "
Then Becket saw that death was near, Fitzurse struck off his cap.
Tracy aimed a blow at him with his sword, and wounded the brave
Grim, who strove to defend his master. The same blow which struck
down Grim wounded Becket, and the blood began to flow. Then the
knights attacked him fiercely with their swords, and he fell dying on
the floor of the chapel. A last blow on the head put an end to Becket's
sufferings, and the murder was completed.
The four murderers ran hastily out of the cathedral, and after
plundering the archbishop's house rode off unharmed.
Thus died Thomas A' Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, within the
walls of his own cathedral. What became of the murderers is not
certain. Some say that they went on a voyage to Jerusalem to do
penance for their sins. Others say that they all of them died by some
shameful death. But it seems as if they were really received back into
favour again by the king, and that they were never punished for the
crime they had committed.
What Henry thought of the cruel murder of his enemy remains to
be told. The news was brought to him in France, and he received it
with every sign of the deepest sorrow. Whether or not he really
wished that Becket should be killed we do not know, but now that he
was dead the king was overcome with remorse.
As a sign of his grief, he went to do penance at Canterbury. Bare-
footed, and without his royal robes, he walked to the cathedral,
attended by a crowd of bishops and monks, with whom were many
of his own courtiers. Kneeling before the tomb of Becket, he bade
each of the bishops scourge him on his bare shoulders. Then throwing
himself down upon the tomb, he lay there all night without food.
Such is the story of Henry and Becket. It is a story which should
be remembered, because it shows how great a power the Church
was in the early days of our history, and how even the strongest
kings sometimes found their match among the archbishops and bishops
of the Church.
146 HISTORY OF ENGLAND
The Pope's Gift.
'Adrian the bishop, the servant of the servants of God, to His most dear
Son in Christ, the noble king of England, sendeth greeting and apostolick
benediction we do grant that you do enter to possess that land,1
and there to execute according to your wisdom whatsoever shall be for the
honour of God, and the safety of the realm.
" And further also do we strictly charge and require, that all the people
of that land do with all humbleness, dutifulness, and honour, receive and
accept you as their liega Lord and Sovereign."
From the Butt of Pope Adrian IV. to Henry II.
One or two other things which happened in the reign of Henry II.
must not be forgotten. Henry was successful in his wars in Wales, 'in
Scotland, and in Ireland. He defeated the Scots, and William the Lion, the
Scottish king, was taken prisoner while leading an army into England.
Ireland was at this time divided among many kings and chieftains
and its people were split up into numberless tribes, who were always
fighting one against the other, and constantly plundering each other's
lands. Henry thought that the time had come to make himself master
of Ireland in fact as well as in name, for even before his time
the Kings of England had claimed to be Lords of Ireland. He therefore
gaVe leave to some of the Norman barons to conquer Ireland for
him. He found help in a strange quarter. The Pope, who at that
time was supposed to have the right to give away lands that were
not under any regular king, wrote a paper, or " Bull," as it was
called, in which he " gave " Ireland to Henry.
The Norman knights, under Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, landed
at Waterford, in the south-east corner of Ireland, and made themselves
masters of a large part of the country near the coast. From that
time forward the English power increased in Ireland, and the Kings of
England were known as Lords of Ireland. It was not, however, till
many years later that the whole island submitted to English rule.
Although Henry had been great and powerful during his reign,
and though he had been victorious in so many wars, his life ended
in misery and defeat. His enemies in France took up arms against
him, and when he hurried over to lead his armies he found that among
his enemies was his own son, John (1V). The defeat of his army and
the treachery of his son broke cfown the old king's spirit, and he
died an unhappy death at Chinon, in France, in the year 1189, and
the 56th year of his age.
1 Ireland.
147
CHAPTER XIX
RICHARD CGEUR DE LION.
1189—1199.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF RICHARD I.
Richard I. ("Coeur de Lion") second s->n
of Henry II. and Eleanor of Aqui-
taine, b. 1157, became King 1189, d.
II1Q.
Berengaria, daughter of the King of Navarre,
the wife of King Richard, m. 1191,
d. 1230.
John, son of Henry II., brother of Richard,
afterwards King of England.
Philip AugUStUS, King of France, d. 1223.
Leopold, Duke of Austria, a leader of the
Crusade, d. 1194
Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury,
who governed England in Richard's
absence, d. 1205.
Roger Hoveden, who wrote the history of
this time, d. 1201.
Robin Hood, the famous outlaw of Sherwrod
Forest, is supposed to have lived
during this reign.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF RICHARD I.
1189. Richard I. becomes King of England.
1190. Richard starts on a Crusade.
Richard relieves Acre.
1191. Richard marries Berengaria.
1 192. Richard makes peace with the Saracens.
1192. Richard imprisoned by Leopold of
Austria.
1193. Hubert Walter, Justiciar.
1194. Richard ransomed for .£100,000.
1199. Richard killed at the siege of Chaluz.
The Crescent and the Cross.
' Richard, that robb'd the lion of his heart
And fought the holy wars in Palestine."
Shakespeare : " King John."
THE next two chapters give an account of two brothers: Richard(13) and
John <17). Both brothers are remembered in English history, but for
very different reasons. There was, indeed, a great difference in their
characters and their lives.
Richard spent nearly all his reign outside England ; John stayed in
England. Richard was famous for his generosity, for the victories
which he won over foreign enemies, and for his bravery in war. John,
though, no doubt, also a brave man, is remembered as a cruel and
14? HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
unwise king, who was defeated in his own country by his own people.
And yet it is true to say that we who are alive now owe more to
John's defeats than to Richard's victories.
Richard was the first King of England of that name ; he is therefore
known as Richard I. He is also known by another name, which those
who lived in his time gave him, and by which he is still called
to this day. His friends and enemies were agreed in calling him
Richard Coeur de Lion. " Cceur " is the French word for " heart,'
and Richard Cceur de Lion means " Richard of the Lion Heart," or " The
Lion-hearted." We may ask why a King of England should have
a French name, but we shall cease to wonder when we understand
that Richard was really just as much a Frenchman as he was an
Englishman.
It will be remembered how the Dukes of Normandy became Kings
of England, and how after the time of Stephen the Princes of Anjou
reigned in their stead. Now, as we all know, both Normandy and
Anjou are in France, and the Norman and Angevin l kings were
really quite as much French as they were English. They had lands
and castles in France as well as iii England, and they probably
talked French much more easily than they talked English. We can
therefore understand why Richard came to be called " Cceur- de Lion"
.instead of " The Lion-hearted."
Richard was a man of very great strength, bold as a lion, and
a terrible enemy to meet in battle as he rode on his great war-
horse, clad in armour, and swinging his battle-axe round his head.
He loved nothing so much as war and fighting, and he lived at a time
when everyone who was fond of fighting could easily get as much
as he wanted. But most of the fighting which Richard did was
done far away from England, and brought little profit to our country.
How was it that a King of England came to be fighting so far away
from his own land ? This is how it befell.
It happened that two years before Richard I. came to the throne,
the country which we know as Palestine, or the Holy Land, had
been invaded and taken by the Turks. The Turks were not Christians,
but believed in a man called Mahomed, who they said was the Prophet
of God. From the name of Mahomed they took the name of
Mahometans, and at the time of which we are speaking they
were a very great and warlike people. Wherever they met
the Christians, they fought against them, and when they were
victorious they took the lands of the Christians, and made those
they conquered declare that they believed in Mahomed instead of
1 " Angevin" means "of or belonging to Anjou."
THE CRUSADE. 149
in Christ. Those who refused they either put to death or made
slaves of.
We have learnt that the Turks had taken Palestine, and, as
we all know, the capital of Palestine is Jerusalem, the city built by
David, and in which Jesus Christ was crucified. It is not hard to
understand that Christian people were sorry when they saw the
city of Jerusalem fall into the hands of the Turks, and there were
many of them who were determined that the Turks should be turned
out of it if possible, and that the Christians should be put back there
again. But this was more easily said than done, for the Turks were a
brave and warlike people, and for a long time it seemed more likely
that they would conquer the Christian people of Europe than that the
Christians would conquer them.
The Crusade.
"High deeds achieved of knightly fame,
From Palestine the champion came;
The Cross upon his shoulder borne,
Battle and blast hath dimmed and torn.
Each dint upon his battered shield
Was token of a foughten field." — Scott
Already the Christians had tried their best to beat the Turks. In
the year 1094, nearly one hundred years before Richard became
king, and long before the Moslems had re-taken Jerusalem, .there
appeared in Europe a man who not only had made up his mind
that the Turks should be turned out of the Holy Land, but that he
himself would be the first to lead on the Christians to the fight.
The name of this person deserves to be remembered. He was
called Peter. He was one of those priests who at that time were
known as "Hermits"; that is to say, he lived apart from all men
in a solitary dwelling, and gave himself up to prayer and reflection.
For this reason he is known in history as " Peter the Hermit."
It was in the year 1095, in the reign of William Rufus, King of
England, that Peter the Hermit first called upon the kings and princes
and peoples of Christian Europe to give up all their work and all their
pleasure, and if need be their lives, to the task of beating the Turks
and defending Jerusalem. He went about from place to place, preach-
ing and exhorting the people to follow him. In his hand he bore
a cross, and he bade all those whom he addressed prepare to leave
150 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
all they had and fight for the cause of the Cross, which was the
sign of the Christian religion.
It is for this reason that we speak of Peter the Hermit as being the
first to preach a " Cross-ade" or, as we usually call it, a "Crusade";
that is to say, a war on behalf of the Cross. 1 In all parts of Europe
the people responded to the call of Peter the Hermit $ and rich and
poor, high and low, armed themselves, and made ready to sail east-
wards to the Holy Land, to fight for the cause of the Cross and
for the recapture of the Holy Land.
No doubt the reasons which moved the minds of the Crusaders
were very various. Some went because they loved adventure and
fighting ; others went in the hope of obtaining power or plunder ;
and lastly, there were very many who truly believed that in thus
fighting against the Turk they were serving the cause of Christianity,
and doing a right action. Of such we must speak with respect;
for whether we think they took a wise course or not in thus going
forth to fight on behalf of the cause in which they believed, we must at
least admit that they risked their lives and their fortunes and gave
up their comfort to fight for what they believed to be right.
The kings and princes of Europe were foremost to join the ranks
of the Crusaders, and for the first time, princes who had been engaged
in long rivalry at home were seen fighting side by side against a
common enemy. Among the kings who came forward as leaders
of the Crusade, none was more famous or more active than Richard of
England. The adventure and the danger which accompanied this
war, fought in a strange country against an Eastern enemy, were just
what his bold spirit loved.
The history of Richard's valiant deeds in Palestine, of the great
battle which he fought at Jaffa, of his attack upon Jerusalem, and
of his quarrels with his companions, the King of France and the
Archduke of Austria, may be read in any history of England. Perhaps
the pleasantest way of learning something about them is to take
up Sir Walter Scott's great novel, " The Talisman." It is a most
delightful book, and no one can read the stories of Richard, of Saladin
the Sultan of the Turks, of Edith Plantagenet, of Berengaria, Richard's
wife, of Kenneth of Scotland, and of the crafty Duke of Austria,
without pleasure.
But we need not give up much time to following Richard in his
1 The Cross wa.-, the sign of the Christians, and all who went on the Crusade wore a cross on
their flag, on theit shield, or on their breast. On the other hand, the Mahomedans had for their
sign the Crescent, such as we can see nowadays up~n the flag of Turkey. The wars of the
Crusade are, therefore, sometimes spoken of as the "Wars of the Crescent and the Cross,"
KING RICHARD LANDING IN PALKSTINK.
152 -HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
far-off Eastern battles, for the victories which he won and tlie
courage which he showed, are not of much importance to the history
and progress of the English people. What is really important to
notice is not what Richard did when he was away from England,
but what those whom he had left behind in England did during
his absence. So occupied was the king with the Crusades, and so
frequently was he engaged in fighting battles in France to preserve his
French dominions, that the time which he spent in England was very
short indeed.
It is an old proverb which says, " When the cat's away the mice
will play " ; and there is no doubt that when the strong hand of
the king was taken away, the nobles and barons whom he had left
behind found a good opportunity for strengthening themselves and
preparing for a struggle against the king himself. We shall see
in the next chapter what use the nobles and barons made of the power
which they got into their bands, and we shall then have no difficulty in
understanding how it was that King Richard's love of adventure,
and his distant expeditions, did really make a great difference to
the history of England, and to us who now live in the country.
It seems at first sight as if the battles fought by Richard Cceur
de Lion under the walls of Jerusalem have little to do with the lives of
those who read this book at the present day ; but when we come
to read the story of Magna Charta, to understand what it was, and how
it was obtained, we shall then see that the two things have more to
do with one another than we supposed.
On his way back from Palestine Richard passed through the country
of his enemy, Leopold, Archduke of Austria. By an act of treachery,
which even in those rough times was condemned by all men, Richard
was seized by order of the duke and thrown into prison. For twelve
months he lay in prison, and it was long before his friends in England
even knew where he was.
The story is that his whereabouts were discovered by his old
friend and companion, the musician Blondel, who, roaming through
Europe in search of his master, sat down under the wall of an un-
known castle, and touching his harp, sang a tune which he remembered
as being a favourite one with his royal master. Richard, from his
prison, hearing the familiar air, recognised his friend and played an
answering note. Blondel took the news back with him to England,
and in course of time a ransom was paid, and Richard was restored
to his country and his throne.
But his restless spirit would not allow him to remain long at ease.
He started off again to France to fight against Philip, who threatened
THE CRUSAD&.
153
his Norman possessions there. While besieging the castle of Chaluz
he was struck by an arrow from the bow of a soldier named Bertrand.
As he lay in his tent dying, the king was informed that the castle
had fallen, and that Bertrand had been taken prisoner. The un-
happy archer was brought before the king, trembling for his life, but
Richard, with the generosity which was perhaps the best part of his
nature, forgave the man to whom he owed his death, and ordered that
his life should be spared. Unfortunately, those who served the king
were not as kind as their master, and Bertrand was cruelly put to
death. But the incident should be remembered, as one that does
credit to the king.
CHAPTER XX.
JOHN-THE HISTORY OF THE CHARTERS.
1199-1216.
FAMOUS PEOPLE WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF JOHN.
Innocent III., Pope 1108-1216.
John, King of England, youngest son of
Henry II. and Eleanor of Aquitaine,
and brother of Richard 1., b. 1166,
became King 1199, d. 1216.
Isabella of Angouleme, the second wife of
John, married 1200.
Henry, son of John and Isabella, b. 1207,
afterwards became Henry III., King
of England.
Arthur, Duke of Brittany, son of Geoffrey
Plantagenet, grandson of Henry II.
and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and nephew
of John, murdered 1203.
Philip AugUStUS, King of France, d. 1123.
Louis, son of FhiHp, who joined the English
Borons agamst John, d. 1226.
Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury,
d. 1205.
Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canter-
bury, d. 122-5.
Pandulph, the Pope's Legate in England, d.
1226.
Alexander II., King of Scotland, son of
William the Lion, married Joan,
daughter of King John, d. 1249.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING
1199. John becomes King.
1200. John marries Isabella of Angouleme.
1202. War with France.
1203. Capture of Arthur.
Death of Arthur.
1204. Loss of Normandy. [bury.
1205. Death of Hubert, Archbishop of Canter-
Stephen Langton made Archbishop
by Pope Innocent.
John appoints John de Grey, Bishop of
Norwich, to the same post.
John quarrels with the Pope.
1207. Henry, afterwards King Henry III ,
born [the Pope.
1208. England laid under an interdict by
12 10. John lands at Dublin, and establishes
English law in Ireland.
1211. John exacts money from the monasteries
and from the Jews.
Expedition of the King into Wales.
Pope Innocent declares John deposed
John attacks Louis of France and the
hostile Barons with success.
THE REIGN OF JOHN.
1211. John makes submission to the Pope.
Langton recognised as Archbishop.
1213. John does homage to the Pope as
King of England and of Ireland.
The Barons refuse to follow John to
France.
Langton summons a council of the
Barons.
1214. Defeat of an English and a Flemish
army at Bouvints by the French.
John renews his illegal exactions in
England.
1215. The Barons assemble at Brackley.
War between the King and the barons.
June 15, Magna Char; a signed.
John appeals to the Pope, who excom-
municates the Barons.
1216. The Barons offer the Crown to Louis,
son of the King of France, who lands
in England.
Destruction of John's army in crossing
the Wash.
Death of King John.
154 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
John and Arthur.
KING JOHN—" Why seek'st thou to possess me with these fears ?
Why urgest thou so oft young Arthur's death ?
Thy hand hath murder'd him : I had a mighty cause
To wish him dead, but thou had'st none to kill him.
HUBERT— No had, my lord ! Why, did you not provoke me?
KING JOHN — It is the curse of kings, to be attended
By slaves, that take their humours for a warrant."
Shakespeare : " King John."
WHEN the hews of King Richard's death reached England there were
confusion and disorder • on every side. There were two claimants
to the throne. One was strong and the other was weak. Right
was on the side of the weak, but, as too often happens, Might was
on the side of the wrong. The law by which the Kings of England
succeeded to the throne was the same then as it is now : the eldest son
came first, then his children if he had any. If the eldest son had
no children, then the second son succeeded, and the second son's*
children. After the second son and his children came the third son.
It was only when neither the eldest nor the second nor the third son
had children that the fourth son could lawfully come to the throne.
Now let us remember how things stood at this time. Henry II.,(11) of
whom we read in Chapter XVIII., was the father of Richard I. Henry
had four sons. Henry <12' the eldest, was dead and had left no children.
Richard I. (13) was the second ; he had become king and was now dead :
he also left no children. The third was Geoffrey,(14) who had married
Constance (15) of Brittany. He too was dead, but had left a son, named
Arthur(10), Duke of Brittany, who, at the time of Richard's death,
was only a boy of eleven. By the law and custom of England, Arthur
should have become King of England on the death of his uncle
Richard.
But we saw that Henry II. had four sons. The youngest of these
was John,(19) a cruel, hard, clever man, who could not bear to see
the throne of England go to a boy, and he made up his mind that,
if he could prevent it, that boy should never sit on the throne of
England. So it is not hard to see how, when the news of Richard's
death reached England, there were all the makings of a quarrel.
On the one hand were the friends of Arthur, who was king by "right"
CHARTERS WERE, AND How THEY WERE WON. 155
on the other were the friends of John, who were determined that he,
and not Arthur, should be king by " might"
The story of the death of Arthur is a melancholy one. Those of
us who have read Shakespeare's great play of King John will re-
member how John, the cruel uncle, threw his nephew into prison, how
he sent one of his followers, Hubert by name, to burn out the boy's
eyes, and how Hubert, touched by the boy's pleadings, refused to
obey the cruel order of the king. How John, fearing the anger
of the English, took Arthur away, and shut him up in a French prison,
and there, as it was believed, slew him with his own hand.
There is a proverb that " Ill-gotten gains never prosper " ; and even
at a time when fighting never ceased, and when murder was common,
John's violence and lawlessness had made him many enemies. Many
of the barons, who, during Richard's long absence, had strengthened
themselves, had built strong castles, and had got together small
armies of followers, now appeared in arms against the king.
Nor were the barons without friends among the people. King John,
a cruel and rapacious man, made enemies both among the rich and
among the poor. From the barons and nobles he took large sums
of money, and tried to deprive them of their lands and their rights.
The poor he treated with cruel injustice, and those who had money
he robbed without mercy, in order to fill his own coffers. John thus
united against him the hatred of all classes among the people,
and it soon became clear that there was to be a trial of strength
between him and his many enemies, in which one side or the other
must be beaten.
What Charters were, and How They were Won.
"Litera scripta ma.net."
Now that we know who King John was, and when he lived, it is time
to turn our attention to the great event which happened in his reign,
and on account of which the name of King John will always be
remembered. The great event I speak of is the signing of Magna
Charta. Most of us have heard the words " Magna Charta," but to
hear words used is not always the same thing as to understand what
they mean. Let us inquire, therefore, first, what the words mean ; and
secondly, what is the thing which they describe.
1 A Latin maxim meaning, "The written word endureth."
156 ft i STORY OF ENGLAND.
" Magna" and " Charta " are both of them Latin words.
means "great," and "Charta" (sometimes written " Carta ") means a
" Charter," or written statement of rights. The particular Charta
of which we are speaking is called the " Great Charter," because,
though there were many other charters in English history, this one
is the greatest and most important.
We may ask, why should a Latin name be used ? The answer
is that at the time when the Great Charter was made, or granted,
by King John, all important writings were in Latin. The Bible used
by the clergy was in Latin ; the histories and chronicles which were
written by the monks were in Latin ; and all the laws of the country
were in Latin.
Very, few people in the time of King John could read or write
at all, but those who could read and write all learnt Latin. This
was a great convenience in some ways, for Englishmen, Frenchmen,
Italians, and Germans, who were quite unable to understand each
other's languages, could always talk or write in Latin, and thus make
themselves understood in any country.
Now that we know what the words Magna Charta mean, it is time
to ask what the Charta was, how it came to be granted in the time
of King John, and why it is that Englishmen have always given it
so important a place in the history of their country. To understand
these things we must go back to the story of King John ; and, indeed,
we must go back even further than the time of King John, to the
reigns of the kings who preceded him.
It will be remembered that in an earlier portion of this book,
we learnt how William the Conqueror made himself master of all
the land of England, and how he gave part of it to his own followers as
a reward for their services. We saw, too, how, in order to keep
down the powerful nobles, by whom his authority was threatened,
he called upon the conquered English to help him against the barons.
The English did help him, and so strong were the king and the
people together, that the king, with the aid of the English, soon got
the upper hand, and became master of the barons.
The next thing we saw was that first William the Conqueror,
then William Rufus, his son, and in turn all the other kings who
came after them, led their armies into France or Scotland or Wales,
and fought battles against the French, the Scots, and the Welsh. In
order that they might fight these battles, two things were needed —
money and soldiers. By the custom of the time, and by what was
called the Feudal law,1 the king had the right to call upon his nobles to
1 Seepage 114.
WHAT CHARTERS WERE, AND Hoiv THEY WERE WON. 157
follow him to war, and to bring a certain number of soldiers with
them. He also had the right to demand the payment of fixed sums
of money by the barons. In the same way he had the right to take,
money from the citizens of the towns, and to call upon each town
to send a fixed number of soldiers.
But it is not hard to understand that at a time when laws and'
customs were often disregarded, and might was often more powerful'
than right, there were many disagreements between the king and
those who were called upon to furnish men and money. The wars
in France, and the Crusades in Palestine, soon swallowed up all
the men and all the money, and then the king had to find a way
of getting more. If the king were very strong, and the nobles or
the citizens from whom he wished to get men or money were weak,
then the plan was simple enough. The king said what he wanted,
and if it were not given to him he took it, and punished those who
dared to refuse him.
But sometimes it happened that the king was not strong enough
to take what he wanted by force, and then he had to bargain. For
instance, if he demanded men and money from some powerful baron
who was strong enough to keep what he had got, and to hold his
castle against the king's troops, the king had to make some promise
of future favours to induce his unruly subject to do what he desired.
One of the commonest ways in which the barons took advantage
of the king's needs was as follows. The king's promise was written
down on parchment, and the Charter, or written record of his promise,
was kept as a proof to all people that the rights which were mentioned
in it had really been granted.
The same thing happened in the cities and towns, especially as
they grew rich and populous. The king wanted money or men,
the town had both money and men, but was in no hurry to give
them away. " I want the aid of my loyal citizens," wrote the king.
" Your loyal citizens will be quite ready to give you the aid you desire,
but — -" ; and then the citizens, through their mayors or sheriffs, used
generally to say that if the king would be pleased to give them the
right to build a bridge, and take a toll from all the king's subjects
who crossed over it ; or if the king would allow them for ever afterwards
to appoint their own judges and try their own disputes without any
interference from the king and his successors, then they, the citizens,
would be very happy to give the king what he wanted.
Perhaps, if the king were strong enough to take what he required,
he marched a troop of soldiers into the town, threw the mayor and
the chief citizens into prison, for daring to try to make a bargain
158 Hi STORY OF ENGLAND.
with him, and kept them in prison till the money was paid and the men
were provided.
But there were often reasons why the king thought a bargain
the shortest way of getting what he wanted. He had already, perhaps,
many enemies, and did not want to make more. It was easy to make
promises for the future so long as he got what he w.anted at the
moment ; and, besides, it was always easy to make a present of
what really belonged to someone else. And so in many cases the
bargain was struck, and the terms of the bargain were written down
in a charter, which was duly signed and sealed, and kept among the
city records.
Thus in the time of King John, the town of Nottingham agreed to
pay a large sum of money every year for the right to appoint and
elect its own Port- Reeve or Mayor, and its own magistrates, and in
the time of Henry II. the town paid some more money to the king,
who promised that in return all the citizens of Nottingham should
be free to buy and sell in any market in England.
This was a great advantage, for, as a rule, those who had goods
to sell in a market were made to pay a tax or toll before they were
allowed to sell anything. The promises which were made to the
people of Nottingham by William the Conqueror and Henry II.
were written down on parchment and sealed with the king's seal,
and these very parchments are still kept among the charters of
Nottingham.
There are many of these ancient charters preserved to the present
day, and they may be seen in the great public libraries in London,
Oxford, and other places ; and also in the British Museum in London.
The City of London became at a very early date in our history the
most powerful and important of English cities, and the citizens of
London were among the first to use their power and their riche?
to obtain charters from the king. Each new charter which they
received made them stronger than before, and enabled them to get
better terms from each king in turn.
But it is easy to understand that in such troubled and warlike
times as the days of William the Conqueror, Henry II., and John, a
parchment writing, however carefully signed and sealed, was not
always a certain protection.
It was easy for kings to make promises when they were weak ;
it was almost equally easy for them to break them when they became
strong agair. And so it often befell. Time after time we find that
the kings broke faith, and failed to keep the promises which they
had made, and whic^ were written down in the charters. -Then
THE SIGNING OF THE GREAT CHARTER. 159
the struggle had to begin over again, and be continued until the king
was compelled to " confirm " the charter, or to grant a new one in
its stead.
The Signing- of the Great Charter.
" Magna Charta was signed by John,
Which Henry the Third put his seal upon. "
Old Rhyme.
We saw how the Norman kings with the help of the conquered
English, had "got the better of the barons. No sooner had they done
so than they began to demand from the barons* men and money
beyond what the feudal laws and customs allowed them to take.
When the barons were weak, as in the time of William the Conqueror
and William Rufus, they gave what they were asked for. WThen,
in their turn, the barons became strong and the king weak, they either
refused the aid altogether, or gave it on condition of their receiving
something in return.
As early as the reign of Henry I. we read of a charter being
given by the king to the barons and people. King Stephen was
also obliged to grant a charter which was full of promises which
he had very little intention of ever performing. We have already
seen that Henry II., who came after Stephen, was a great and power-
ful king, and, having the • English on his side, he soon became more
than a match for the barons. Indeed, the king had by that time
become so powerful that neither the barons nor the people alone could
resist his will successfully.
At last the barons saw that if they were to stand against the king at
all, they must follow the example which William the Conqueror had
been the first to set, and must get the people to join with them. As
long as they fought only for themselves and for their own advantage,
no one was likely to help them, and they were at the mercy of the
king. But they soon saw that, by joining their own cause with that
of all the people, they would be able to win success.
It was in the reign of King John that the barons thought the time
had come for standing up once for all for their rights. It was not
wonderful that they should think so. In the first place, John was
a violent and cruel man, always ready to take by force what he
1 6o
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
could not obtain fairly. In the second place, John was engaged
in quarrels both at home and abroad.
Abroad he had begun a war against the King of France. At home
he had quarrelled with the clergy; and, in order to carry on his
wars, he had made great demands upon the barons, and upon the
people, for money and men. What he could not get as a gift he
RUNNYMEDE.
took by force, paying no attention to the rights of his subjects, nor
to the promises which had been made by his father and his great-
grandfather.
It is easy to understand why John made many enemies. The
Clergy hated him because he refused to obey the orders of the Church,
and because he brought in foreign priests whom he set over the
heads of the English clergy. The Barons hated him because he took
their lands, broke the promises made in their charters, and brought
THE SIGNING OF THE GREAT CHARTER. 161
in foreigners to whom he gave some of the richest lands in the,
kingdom. The People hated him because he robbed them of their
money, treated them with cruelty, and broke the laws.
At last the king's enemies would submit no longer, and they joined
together in arms to fight against him. The barons met at Brackley
in Northamptonshire (1215). At their head were Fitz Walter, William
Marshall, and Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, the wisest and
most famous of them all. They sent a message to the king, and told
him plainly that they would no longer allow him to break the law
and to overlook their rights. They threatened that, unless he would
give a solemn promise in writing to observe their rights in the future,
they would make war upon him and drive him from the throne.
The barons were wise enough to get all the help they could against
the king. Many nobles from all parts of England joined them, and
the Mayor and citizens of London sent word to them to say that
the Londoners were on their side. The messengers found John at
Oxford ; they came before him and told him what were the demands
they had been ordered to make. " These are our claims" said they,
" and if they are not instantly granted, our arms shall do us justice" The
fury of the king was terrible. "And why do they not demand my crown
also ? " cried he. " / will not" he continued, with a great oath,
" I will not grant them liberties which will make me a slave"
But the barons were not to be terrified, or driven from their
purpose. They at once declared themselves to be " the army of God
and His Holy Church," and sent to all parts of the kingdom to call
people to their aid. First there came a message in reply from London,
saying that the Mayor and citizens were on the side of the barons*
and then from all parts there poured in lords and knights, and friends
of every degree. It is said that only seven knights remained with the
king. Then John saw that, for the time at any rate, he could not
resist, and he therefore agreed to meet the barons.
The meeting took place in a field by the side ot the river Thames,
not far from Windsor. The king came from Windsor, the barons
from Staines. If we take a boat and row down the river from Windsor,
we shall come to a broad meadow, about three miles from \Vindsor
Bridge. It has a name which is very famous in English history ; it is
called Runnymede. It was at Runnymede that the Great Charter was
agreed to by King John in the presence of the barons. (June 15, 1215.)
And now it may be asked, Why has this long chapter been
given up to the story of Magna Charta, and of the other charters
which went before it ? What is this Great Charter, and why is it so
famous ?
G
1 62 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The answer to the first part of the question is, that if we have
carefully read and properly understood all that has been said in this
chapter, we shall understand how most of the laws and liberties
of England were obtained in the early part of our history. What
the Great Charter was, and why it is so famous, we shall see in
the next chapter.
CHAPTER XXI.
WHAT THE GREAT CHARTER DID FOR ENGLISHMEN,
An Englishman's Rights.
" Only law can give us freedom."1 — Goethe.
Magna Charta, which was sealed by King John and the Barons at
Runnymede on the 15th June, 1215, is a long paper or parchment con-
taining Forty-nine Articles or divisions.2 At the foot of the parchment
are the seals of the king and of the barons.
We know exactly what Magna Charta was like, for we can actually
see a copy of it at this very day at the British Museum. There
were probably several copies made, and this is one of them. The
Charter was written in Latin, as almost all laws and charters were
at that time. It contained, as we have already learnt, forty-nine
clauses or paragraphs.
Of these forty-nine clauses, only a very few are of much interest
to us nowadays. The reason for this is easy to understand. The
barons who made King John sign the Charter, did not pretend to
be making a set of new laws. What they did was to write down
clearly the laws and customs which they declared the king had broken,
and which they wished to make him keep and observe in the future. A
great many of these laws and customs had to do with things which
1 " Das Gesetz nur kann uns Freiheit geben."
2 Afterwards increased to sixty-three.
AN ENGLISHMAN'S RIGHTS. 163
were very important at the time, but which have ceased to be im-
portant in our own days.
For instance, a great many of the clauses of the Charter speak of
the feudal rights of the nobles. Others had to do with the rights of
the towns, some clauses gave permission to merchants to travel freely,
and to carry on their business without interference, and some had to
do with less important matters.
All these things mattered very much at the time, for the " Feudal
law " was the law under which the barons lived. The feudal law
has now been done away with, and is nearly forgotten. At that time
the people in the towns had often hard work to protect themselves
against the king or against the nobles. Nowadays all the people of
England, whether in town or country, live under the same just laws,
so there is little need for those parts of the Charter which have to
do with the towns.
It is the same with many other clauses. So many things have
changed in England, that the clauses no longer matter very much
to us who live nearly seven hundred years after the time of King
John. For these reasons we can leave out those parts of the Charter
which are no longer important, and can turn our attention to the parts
which are best known, and which really make a difference even in the
present day.
The following are the clauses, or Articles, as they are called, of
the Charter, which we ought specially to remember : —
Article 40. "To none will we sell, to none will we refuse, to none will we
delay, Right and Justice."
Article 17. "The Court of Common Pleas shall not follow the King's
circuit, but shall be held in a certain fixed place."
Article 18. " We, 1 or if we are absent from the kingdom, our Chief
Justiciary, shall send four times a year into each County, two Judges
who .... shall hold the Assizes at the time and place appointed
in the said County."
Article 39. " No Freeman shall be arrested, or imprisoned, or dispossessed
of his tenement, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any wise proceeded against,
unless by the legal judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land."
Article 20. "No Freeman, Merchant, or Villein,2 shall be excessively
fined for a small offence ; the first shall not be deprived of his means of
livelihood ; the second of his merchandise ; the third of his implements of
husbandry."
It would not be a bad plan to learn these Articles by heart; it
1 " We " means the king.
2 Villein, i.e., husbandman.
1 64 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
would be well worth while ; and we ought to try to understand clearly
what they mean. This is not difficult, for they are most of them
written in plain language.
Let us take them in order, and see what they mean and how
far they concern us.
Article 40. "To none will we sell, to none will we refuse, to none
will we delay, right and justice." Such is the promise made by King
John on behalf of himself, and of those who were to come after him.
It is well that such a promise should have been solemnly made to
the people of England so long ago. Without justice to all alike,
a country can never prosper. It had been the practice of King John,
as it is still the practice of rulers in some parts of the world, to
give judgments in favour of those who paid money for them : in other
words, to " sell justice." Sometimes the judgment was delayed for
months and years, so that the person who sought justice, and who
had right on his side, was kept out of his rights all his life. King John
promised that for the future, justice should never be " delayed" So,
too, he promised that it should never be " refused " to those who
asked for it.
These were great promises to make, and if they had been faithfully
carried out, it would have been much better for England, and those
who lived in it. Unfortunately, John himself was the very first to
break these solemn promises which he had made, and many of the
kings who came after him forgot or neglected the 4oth Article of
the Great Charter, and allowed justice to be sold, to be refused,
and to be delayed to their subjects. But, thanks to the Charter, every
king who acted thus, knew that he was doing wrong, and breaking
the law which he had promised to. keep. It was a great thing to
have this right rule always there to point to, and to fight for.
And now, happily, in our own time, we have very nearly got all that
King John promised, for it can truly be said that in England, justice is
never sold, that it is never denied to any man, rich or poor, high
or low. It is true that justice is still sometimes delayed, and that
it often takes a .man a long time to get a judgment as to what are
his rights ; but every year more is being done to make going to law
easier, and to make it possible for every man to have a judgment
on his case in a short time.
The Judges of Assize.
"In the first class I place the judges as of the first importance. It is
the public justice that holds the community together. " — Burke.
But it was no use promising to give justice to all men, if there were
no way in which justice could be done, and in which the rights and
wrongs in any case could be heard.
In order that justice shall be done there must be judges. To
provide the judges, Articles 17 and 18 were put into the Charter. In
the time of King John all justice was supposed to be done by the
king himself, and as, of course, he had not time to try all the cases that
arose, he used to appoint judges for the purpose.
Wherever the king went, the judges followed him. This was,
of course, very inconvenient, for the king was constantly travelling
about, sometimes in France, sometimes in Scotland, sometimes hunt-
ing, sometimes amusing himself in other ways. The consequence was
that many people never got justice done to them at all, and though
there were judges they were of little use.
It was for these reasons that Articles 17 and 18 were put into the
Charter. Article 17 says, " The Court of Common Pleas shall not follow
the King's Court, but shall be held in a certain fixed place."
Article 18 says " We, or, if we are absent from the kingdom, our Chief
Justiciary, shall send four times a year into each County, two Judges,
who .... shall hold the Assizes at the time and place appointed in
the said County."
A few years ago, anyone who went to Westminster, in London,
and entered the great hall close to the Houses of Parliament, which
is known as Westminster Hall, would have seen on one side of the
Hall as he went up, five doors, and above them written in order,
" Queen's Bench," " Common Pleas," " Exchequer," " Lords Justices,"
"Lord Chancellor." These were the doors of the Courts of Law, in
which the judges sat.
The second door was that of the " Common Pleas," and there
sat the judges hearing cases brought before them from all parts of
the kingdom. They sat just as they were commanded to sit in
Article 17 of Magna Charta, and ever since the time of King John
down to the time of Queen Victoria, the Judges of the Common Pleas
have sat all the year round at Westminster, during the law terms,
1 66 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
to bear cases and to give judgment. It did not matter where the
king or queen might be, everyone knew that the judges were to be
found " in a certain fixed place," namely, the Court of Common Pleas
at Westminster.
In the year 1884 the old Courts at Westminster were pulled down,
new ones having been opened two years earlier in the great build-
ing which stands in the Strand, in London, and which is called
the Royal Courts of Justice. The Court of Common Pleas, the Court
of Exchequer, and the Court of King's Bench are now all joined
together, and all the judges who sit in them are called Judges of
the King's Bench.1 But though the name is changed, the thing is
the same, and the Courts which sit at the Royal Courts of Justice
in London are really the same Courts which are spoken of in Article
17 of Magna Charta.
But if everyone had to come to London to get justice, there would
be very little justice done. This would be true even nowadays, when,
thanks to railways, travelling is so easy and rapid. It would have
been much more true in the time of King John, when there were
scarcely any roads, and when it took weeks to get from York to
London.
It was plain, therefore, that when those who wanted justice could
not come to the judges, the judges must go to them. To provide for
this, Article 18 was put into the Charter. It runs as follows : — " We, or,
if we are absent from the kingdom, our Chief Justiciary, shall send four
times a year into each county, two judges, who .... shall hold the
Assizes at the time and place appointed in the said County."
Here we see it is provided that the judges shall go into every
county, and shall hold the Assizes at some appointed place. Article 18
was written in the year 1215, but to this very day the rule which is laid
down in it is carried out. Everyone who has lived in, or near, a
County Town knows what is meant by the Assizes. Once or twice
every year the Judges of Assize come to York, to Leeds, to Plymouth,
to Manchester, to Norwich, to all the big towns in the country,
and to some of the small ones, such as Bodmin in Cornwall, and Lewes
in Sussex.
The two judges generally come into the town in state. The
High Sheriff of the county goes to meet them in a grand carriage.
Trumpeters ride before and blow upon their trumpets, and sometimes
soldiers are sent to form a guard of honour for the judges. Two
Courts are opened. In the one sits a judge clothed in a scarlet
robe. He is called the " Crown Judge" All the prisoners who are in
1 Or King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice.
THE JUDGES OF ASSIZE.
167
gaol waiting their trial are brought before him, to be tried by him and
by a Jury, to be punished if they be guilty, and to be let free if they be
innocent.
In the other Court sits the second judge in a black robe. He
is called the " Civil Judge" and before him are brought all sorts
of disputes between persons who have "gone to law" with each other.
THE JUDGES ENTERING AN ASSIZE TOWN-
PI e hears both sides, and decides which is right and which is wrong,
and gives his judgment accordingly.1
Thus we see that the rule laid down in the i8th Article of Magna
Charta is still observed. For more than 650 years the Judges of Assize
have taken their journeys through England, doing justice to the people
in the name of the king or of the queen. The next time we read in
the paper the words " Assize News," or the next time we see the
judges with their trumpeters coming into a town, we shall do well
to remember that we owe their coming to Article 18 of Magna Charta.
Sometimes with a jury, and sometimes without.
1 68 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Personal Liberty and Trial by Jury.
" You shall well and truly try and true deliverance make between
our Sovereign Lord the King and the Prisoner at the Bar, and a true
verdict give according Jto the evidence. So help you God I " — The Oath
administered to the Jury in a Criminal Case.
But we. must not forget that the judges were appointed by the
king, and that an unjust king might easily appoint unjust judges ; and
that if the king wished to harm any of his subjects, it was as easy
for him to injure them through the judges as to do the harm himself.
If, therefore, Magna Charta had stopped at Article 18 it would have
been very incomplete. Something more had to be done. We shall see
what that something was when we read Article 39. Article 39 was
as follows : — " No freeman shall be arrested, or imprisoned, or dispossessed
of his tenement, or outlawed, or exiled, or in anywise proceeded against,
unless by the legal judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land."
In the first place we must notice that Article 39 talks of " Freemen"
Nowadays all men in England are free, but in the time of King
John this was not so. In those days, and for many years afterwards,
there were many Englishmen who were actually slaves, while there
were others who were known as " Serfs," and who, though not
slaves, were something very like it. They were prevented from leaving
the land on which they lived, and they were compelled to do a
large amount of work for their " Lord " without payment. To such as
these the 3gth Article of the Charter did not apply. But as everybody
in England is now a free man, every Englishman is concerned in
the rule contained in the article.
What the rule says shortly is this, that no man shall be punished in
any way except by Law, and that whenever he be charged with any
crime, he shall have the right to be tried before a jury of his country-
men before he is found guilty. We have got so accustomed to
the enjoyment of these rights now, that we hardly understand how
valuable they seemed to those who first got them acknowledged as
part of the laws of England. Those who do wrong must be punished,
and it is often quite just that they should be put in prison ; but if
the right to put them into prison were left to those whom they had
injured, or to any person who was powerful enough to carry them
off against their will, there would soon be no peace in the land.
Over and over again it has happened in our history, that persons
have been put into prison by powerful enemies, and their liberty
PERSONAL LIBERTY AND TRIAL BY JURY. 169
taken away from them by force. But whenever this has been done,
Article 39 of the Charter has been broken and set aside. The words 01
the Charter are very plain — " No man shall be arrested, or imprisoned,
or dispossessed of his tenement (this means turned out of his house or
land), or in anywise proceeded against (which means that no steps
shall be taken to punish or to injure him), except by the legal judgment
of his Peers."
If we want to know what is meant by " The legal Judgment of his
Peers," we have only to go into any court where prisoners are being
tried at the Assizes. There we shall see a Jury of twelve men chosen
by lot from a long list of persons unknown to the prisoner. The jury
will hear the whole of the case against the prisoner, and it is they
who will have to say whether he be " Guilty," or " Not Guilty," of
the crime which is laid to his charge. If they say that he be " not
guilty," nothing more can be done to him, and no one can touch
him.
It may be asked, What is the meaning of the word " Peers " ? Peers
here- means " Equals," or persons in the same class of life. It was
thought by those who drew up Magna Charta that it was only fair
to a man that he should be tried by those of his own rank, and in
his own way of life. For instance, they meant that a Baron should
be tried by other barons, that a Churchman should be tried by other
churchmen, and that a merchant, or a farmer, should, in the same
way, be tried by those who were in the same rank of life as himself.
They thought that injustice would be done if those in one class
were allowed to try those of another, for then there was always a
danger that a jury of barons would be unfair to a churchman or
to a merchant, that a jury of merchants would be unfair to a baron or a
churchman, and so on. This was the more important, because, at
the time when Magna Charta was signed, there were different laws
for the churchmen, for the nobles, and for the merchants and
farmers. Now that there is only one law for all, it is not necessary
to make any distinction between the juries by which different people
are tried.
170 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
How the Law Protects the Weak.
The law is no respecter of persons.
We must not suppose that because we are so accustomed to the
idea of every man being judged according to law only, that even
in our time the danger against which Article 39 of Magna Charta
was intended to guard us is unknown. It is not so long ago, indeed,
since men were put into prison and their property taken from them in
England by order of the king, or by order of the House of Commons,
contrary to the law of the land.
In the reign of Charles I., the king himself did many things which
were contrary to the law. Among other things, he tried to take
prisoners five Members of Parliament in the House of Commons itself.
But the House of Commons would not let the king take the Members
prisoners. It was long before Charles could be punished for his
illegal deeds, but at last, as we know, the Parliament and the people
rose against him, and drove him from his throne, and put him
to death.
The very first thing that his son, Charles II., was made to do when
he was put back upon the throne was to sign a solemn promise
that he would always act according to the law, and that he would
obey the rules which had been laid down in Magna Charta, and in
the other laws of England.
Thus we see that Magna Charta has been a protection for the
people and Parliament of England against the king, when the king
became too strong. But it was not the king only who broke the
law and disobeyed the rules of Magna Charta. In the reign of
George III., the House of Commons ordered some men who had
written down the speeches made in Parliament to be put into
prison.
At that time no one was allowed to give an account of what
was said in Parliament. The House of Commons sent a messenger
to take one of these men, named Wheble, prisoner. But Wheble had
never been tried according to the law, which says that no man shall be
imprisoned unless he has been tried and found guilty by a jury, or
How THE LAW PROTECTS THE WEAK. 171
according to law. So when the messenger of the House of Commons
came to take Wheble prisoner, Wheble turned the tables on him,
and had the messenger himself made a prisoner.
The messenger was brought before the Lord Mayor of London to
be tried, and the Lord Mayor said that it was plain that he had broken
the law, for he had sought to imprison a man who had never been
tried and found guilty. So the Lord Mayor sent the messenger of
the House of Commons to prison. Then there was a great quarrel
between the House of Commons and the Lord Mayor, but it ended
in Wheble being allowed to go free. And thus we see that even
the House of Commons has to obey the law, and is not allowed to
break the rules laid down in Magna Charta.
And just as the king, when he was very powerful, tried to break the
law, and just as Parliament, when it became very strong, tried to break
the law, so also the very people for whom the law was made have
sometimes tried to break it.
There was a time, not very long ago, when there were great trouble
and alarm in the town of Sheffield. A Trades Union had been formed
among the workmen who ground saws in Sheffield. It was called
the " Saw Grinders'1 Union." All the saw grinders in Sheffield did
not join the union, but those who belonged to it thought they were
strong enough to make the others join. They tried to frighten the
men who did not belong to the union. They broke their grind-
stones, they stole their tools, and they even killed some of the
non-union men.
All these things were contrary to law ; and so at last Parliament
had to put a stop to this cruel work. They sent down men who
made inquiry about all that had taken place, and who showed how the
law had been broken. Then those who had broken the law were told
that if ever they dared to offend in the same way again they would
be severely punished^
Thus it will be seen that the Law is strong enough to punish
King or Parliament, or People. It is a very good thing that the law is
so , strong and so clear, for history teaches us that those who have
great power, whether they be king, or whether they be Members
of Parliament, or whether they be working men, will often use their
power to injure those who are weaker than themselves, and it is a
good thing to have a law which will stop any man, whether he be
rich or poor, high or low, from being unjust to others.
And even now, in our own time, there are many parts of the
world in which people have been violently and unjustly put in prison, -
and their land and their property taken away from them, without any
172 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
regard for the law, and without those who were thus unjustly treated
receiving a fair and open trial. It is a most happy thing for us in
England to know that no man, whether he be rich or poor, high or low,
can be punished in any way, or deprived of his property, without
a full and fair trial.
Magrna Charta and the Seamstress.
" He shall keep the simple folk by their right ; defend the children of the
poor, and punish the wrong-doer. " — Psalm Ixxii.
And now we come to Article 20 of the Charter, which is as follows : —
"No Freeman, Merchant, or Villein1 shall be excessively fined for a small
offence ; the first shall not be deprived of his means of livelihood ; the second
of his merchandise ; the third of his implements of husbandry."
This is a very important Article, and a very interesting one.
Shortly put, it says, that however much one man may owe to another,
he shall never be deprived of those things which are necessary to
enable him to get a living.
The law nowadays is not exactly the same as that laid down
in Article 20, for in our day a man's merchandise may be taken
in payment of his debts, but the law still says that a man's bed, and
a man's tools with which he gets his living, may not be taken away
from him.
Thus, not long ago, it happened that a woman in London owed
money to a man. The man to whom she owed the money, the
" Creditor,'" as he is called, went to law and got an order from the
judge which enabled him to take from the woman who owed him
the money, and who is called the " Debtor" enough of her property
to pay the debt. Now, the woman was a seamstress, and earned
her living by her sewing machine.
The creditor sent bailiffs to take a sufficient amount of her pro-
perty to pay the debt. Among other things the bailiffs took the sewing
machine. This was against the law, and they had no right to do it.
The woman in her turn went to the magistrate and told him what
1 Husbandman,
MAGNA CHART A AND THE SEAMSTRESS. 173
had been done. The magistrate said at once that the Law had been
broken. He ordered the creditor to give back the sewing machine, and
to pay a sum of money as a punishment for having broken the law.
This is a wise and reasonable rule, for it is only fair that all men
and women should be allowed to keep the means by which they
BAILIFFS BREAKING "MAGNA CHARTA."
get their living. It is only good sense too ; for if one man be owed
money by another, it is no use taking from the debtor the very things
by which he earns his livelihood. In the same way the law forbids
a creditor to take the bed on which a man sleeps, or to take the
tools with which he does his work. These rules, we shall see, were
first laid down in Article 20 of the Great Charter.
174 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Thing's New and Old."
" The old never dies till this happen, till all the soul of good that was In
it get itself transformed into the practical new." — Carlyle.
Now we have gone through the most important Articles of the
Charter, and have seen how much these rules, which were drawn up and
agreed to nearly seven hundred years ago, have to do with our own
lives at the present day ; and from this we may learn a lesson. It is
said by some persons who do not think very carefully, that old laws
must be bad ones, and that because a law has been a law for very
many years, it must be old-fashioned or unreasonable. The moment
we come to think, and to remember what we have just learnt about
Magna Charta, we shall see how foolish such an opinion as this is.
Some laws which were made a long time ago are useless now,
because the habits and customs of the people of England have changed
so much that there is no longer any sense in the laws or use for
them. For instance, laws were made at one time providing for
the keeping up of Castles on the border between England and Scotland,
and on the border between England and Wales, and for making
certain people answerable for finding soldiers to defend the castles.
Now there is no need for such castles, and the law, therefore, has long
ago become useless.
Then there was also a very strange law made in the time of Queen
Elizabeth which is of no use nowadays. In the time of Queen
Elizabeth it became the fashion to wear tall, starched "ruffs," or
collars, stuck up all round the head, like the one in the picture.
The ruffs grew taller and taller, for everybody thought that the way to
become fashionable was to wear a "ruff" a little higher than his
neighbour. At last a law was made which forbade people to wear
"ruffs" more than a certain height, and those who did so were
punished. There may, perhaps, have been some good in the law
when it was made, but there is certainly no good in it nowadays.
Nobody now wants to wear " ruffs " high, and if they did they would
receive no worse punishment than being laughed at.
There are also laws which were bad laws when they were made,
or which were made at a time when people did not know things which
we have since discovered. For instance, many laws were made
" THINGS NEW AND OLD''
against Witchcraft, and terrible punishments were inflicted upon those
who were suspected of being Witches. We now know that witchcraft
and witches are foolish inventions, and all the laws against them,
therefore, which were never wise, have long ago ceased to be part
of the law of the land.
But there are some things which were right and true nearly 700
years ago, and which are as right
and true now as they were then.
It was right nearly 700 years ago
chat justice should be done to all
men; it is also right now. It
was right 700 years ago that no
one should be punished except
by law, and it is right now; and
so we have to thank those an-
cestors of ours who lived in the
time of King John because they
were wise enough to make laws
in their own time which were so
just and so useful that the need
for them is still felt.
And we must not forget that
Magna Charta is still a part of the
Law of the Land just as much as
any Act of Parliament that was
passed last year. Magna Charta was first signed by King John, but
it was afterwards altered several times, and it was signed again by
Henry III., the son of King John.
If we look in the law books which contain the statutes or laws
of England, we shall find there, near the beginning, a statute which
the lawyers call " Cap. IX., Hen. III." which means the ninth chapter
of the statutes passed in the time of King Henry III. Ever since that
time Magna Charta has been part of the law of England, and it is
interesting to remember that when Charles II. came back to England
after the death of Oliver Cromwell, and was put back upon the throne,
he was made to promise that he would observe the rules of Magna
Charta.
QUEEN ELIZABETH IN HER "RUFF."
176 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The Famous "Fifteens.'
" What hath this day deseru'd ? What hath it done
That it in golden letters should be set,
Among the high tides in the Calendar ? "
Shakespeare : " King John" Act HI.
We saw that the Charter was signed in the year 1215. It is in-
teresting to observe how many of the important things in the history of
England have happened in a year ending in the number " 15."
In 1215 Magna Charta was signed. In 1415 Henry V. won the great
victory of Agincourt over the French. In 1715 took place the "" Jacobite
Rebellion," when the Pretender tried to lead his Scottish army into
England, a rebellion which is generally known in history as "The
'Fifteen." In 1815 was fought the great battle of Waterloo. Here are
four famous dates which we shall find it very easy to remember —
1215, 1415, 1715, and 1815.
CHAPTER XXII.
HENRY III.— THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND.
1216-1272.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF
HENRY III.
Henry III, King of England, son of King I Louis IX. (St. Louis), King of France, be.
John and Isabella of AngoulSme, b. j came King 1226, d. 1270.
1207, became King 1216, d. 1272. Philip III., King of France, became King
Eleanor Of Provence, wife of Henry III., ! 1270, grandfather of Isabella, who
m. 1236.
Edward, son of Henry III. and Eleanor
of Provence, b. 1239, afterwards King
of England.
Margaret, daughter of Henry III., and
Eleanor of Provence, m. Alexander
III., King of Scotland.
Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canter-
bury, d 1228.
Hubert de Burgh, Justiciar, and Henry's
most important Minister till 1232, d.
Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, b.
1208, killed at Evesham 1265.
married Edward II , King of England.
Rudolph Of Hapsburg (the ancestor of the
present Emperor of Austria), chosen
Emperor 1273.
Roger WendOVer, a monk of St. Albans,
who wrote part of the history of this
time, d. 1236.
Matthew Paris, another monk of St.
Aibans, who continued the history
«fter the death of Roger Wendover,
d. 1:159.
Roger Bacon, b. 1214, an Oxford student
and monk, who is said to have first
used gunpowder in England.
177
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY III
1216.
1217.
1219.
122.
12 $2.
1236.
1239.
Henry becomes king. 1239.
Louis returns to France.
Hubert de Burgh destroys the French 1242.
fleet.
The barons' party make terms with the
king.
Death of the Earl of Pembroke, Earl
Marshal. 1252.
Hubert de Burgh. Justiciar, becomes
the King's chief Minister. I 1258.
Death of Stephen Langton.
Hubert de Burgh dismissed by the king. 1263.
Henry marries Eleanor of Provence. 1264.
Large numbers of foreigners come to | 1265.
England with the Queen.
Simon de Montfort marries Eleanor,
sister of King Henry, and widow of
William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke.
Edward, sonof Henry and Eleanor, who 1270.
was afterwards King of England, born. 1272.
Quarrel between King Henry and De
Montfort.
War in Poitou with France. The
barons refuse to give Henry money
for the war.
Discontent with the foreigners and the
foreign clergy. _
Montfort puts himself at the head of
the barons.
Henry summons a Parliament, known
as the " Mad Parliament."
Beginning of the " Barons' War."
Montfort defeats Henry at Lewes.
Montfort summons a Parliament,
in which members for the Towns
appear for the first time.
The battle of Evesham. Death of
Montfort.
Death of Louis IX., King of France.
Death of Henry III.
The greater part of Westminster Abbey, as we know it now, was built in the reign of
Henry III.
It is said that Roger Bacon, who lived during this reign, was the first person in England to
describe Gunpowder and to explain its use.
It was during this reign that the great Italian poet, Dante, was born (1265).
Henry III. and his Foreign Friends.
CHAMBERLAIN—" Is't possible, the spells of France should juggle
Men into such strange mysteries ?
SANDS — New customs,
Though they be never so ridiculous,
Nay, let 'em be unmanly, yet are follow'd.
* # * * *
CHAMBERLAIN — .... now, I would pray our monsieurs
To think an English courtier may be wise,
And never see the Louvre."
-Henry VIII." Act I., Scene 3.
WHEN John died he was succeeded by his son Henry. (18) Henry
was a boy of nine years of age when he became king. He reigned
longer than any English sovereign except King George III. and
Queen Victoria. But the reign of Henry was one of misery and
disturbance for the people of England.
Little good was done for this country by the king. One thing,
however, he did which was a good thing, and by which we may
remember him. It was Henry III. who rebuilt the beautiful Abbey
T^g HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
at Westminster, and a great deal of the Abbey as it now stands
dates from the time of Henry III.
But if Henry did little that was good or worthy, some things
happened during his reign which were of great importance, and which
have made a great difference to the people of England. When we go
through the reigns of the different kings and queens of England, and
try to put down what is the chief thing to be remembered in each
of them, we shall see when we come to the reign of Henry III. that
the chief thing to be remembered is that the first English Parliament
sat in the reign of Henry III.
If we take up a newspaper we often see the words "Imperial
Parliament," and underneath them an account of the speeches which
are made, and the Acts which are passed in the House of Lords and
the House of Commons. This great Parliament, which everybody knows
something about nowadays, has come down to us from the stormy
reign of Henry III.
We must try to understand how it was that this came about.
One thing we can hardly help noticing, and that is, how often good
comes out of evil. We saw how in the time of King John there
were injustice and cruelty throughout the land. We saw also how
this very injustice and cruelty led to King John being forced to
sign Magna Charta. And now again in the time of Henry III., we
shall see how troubles and disturbances led to the founding of the
Parliament of which we are so proud.
The whole story cannot really be told so shortly as it must be
told here. A great deal must be left out which can be read in larger
books, but the chief part of the story can be told in a few pages.
We shall find, as a rule, that whenever a great change is made
in the history of a country, there has always been one great man whose
name is remembered because of the part he took in helping to bring
about that change. And so it is in this case. The name which
Englishmen ought always to think of when they speak of the first
Parliament, is the name of a very great man, Simon de Montfort, Earl
of Leicester.
And* now let us go back to the history itself. It seemed at first
as if things would have gone on smoothly after the death of King John,
for John had made promises of good behaviour in Magna Charta,
on behalf of himself and of his son. But it was soon seen that there
were many difficulties to be overcome.
As soon as the king grew old enough to be married, he took as his
wife Eleanor of Provence. Provence is in the south of France, and
Eleanor was, of course, a foreigner, and all her friends were foreigners
THE BARONS ASKING HENRY III. TO KEEP HIS PROMISES.
i8o% HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
too. These friends came over in numbers to England, and they all
expected to receive from King Henry some of the riches of England,
either in money or in lands. Some were given castles and lands,
others were made archbishops or bishops. Nor had these strangers
the good sense to use their fortune wisely. They despised the English
people, and were cruel and insolent to them. We can easily under-
stand that the English, both rich and poor, soon began to hate these
ill-mannered foreigners, who took their land and their money, and
who treated them so badly.
A party of barons formed themselves together. At the head of
them was Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. Simon was the son
of a Frenchman who had become famous as a great soldier. Simon,
the younger, came over to England when he became Earl of Leicester,
at his father's death, and he soon learnt to share the feelings of the
English barons and the English people. They, too, on their side,
learnt to trust him, for they saw that he was a strong man, true and
brave. Quarrels soon broke out between the king and the barons. The
king broke the promises which had been made by his father in Magna
Charta. Simon de Montfort and the barons took up arms against him,
as the barons had done against John, and made him swear once
more that he would keep to the Charter. In order that the barons
and the people might have some way of making the king keep
his promise in the future, Simon de Montfort declared that there
must be a Council called to help the king in the government of the
country.
Laws, and Law-makers
"Be it enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the
advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in
this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same,
as follows : " — From the commencement of a modern Act of Parliament.
We now come to a very important time in the history of England.
The story which is to be told in this chapter is the story of the be-
ginning of Parliament. We all know pretty well what Parliament
is, and we know something about what it does. Parliament is made up
of the King or Queen, and the Two Houses, called the House of Lords
and the House of Commons. Every law that is made has to be agreed to
by the House of Commons, and by the House of Lords, and then
AND LAW-MAKERS. 181
by the King or Queen. It is with the House of Commons that we
now have to do.
The House of Commons is made up of a great number of Members
who have been chosen or elected by the people living in the counties
and towns of England, Scotland, and Ireland, to speak on behalf
of those who have elected them. In this way the people of England,
Scotland, and Ireland make their own laws, and whether they be good
laws or bad laws depends upon those who make them. If the laws
be bad, the people of England, Scotland, and Ireland have nobody
to thank but themselves. But if they be made in this way, they are
more likely to be good laws than if they are made in any other way ;
for, as it was said by those who wrote about Parliament so long ago as
the time of Simon de Montfort and Henry III., " They who are ruled by
the laws know those laws best ; they who make daily trial of them are best
acquainted with them ; and since it is their own affairs which are at stake,
they will take more care, and will act with an eye to their own peace."
What was true in the time of King Henry is true now. Those
who have to obey the laws are most likely to know whether the laws
injure them or not ; and, as a rule, people will more readily obey those
laws which they have had some share in making.
Now let us see how it happened that the people of England first
began to think of this way of making laws in the time of Henry III.
It seems simple enough in these days, but it was a new thing then,
and a great deal of hard work and hard fighting had to be done
before our Parliament could be made such as we now know it.
In the time of Henry, nearly all the government of the country was
carried on by the king and the king's Ministers ; that is to say, by those
officers whom he appointed. Armies were got together by order of the
king; the king himself often led his soldiers in battle. Great buildings,
such as Westminster Abbey, were built by order of the king.
To do all, or indeed any, of these things, money was wanted —
and often a great deal of money. At first, when William the Conqueror
came over, and when the English had little power and could do
nothing to protect themselves, it was not hard for the king to ask
for whatever he wanted, and to take it, whether the owners liked or
not. But by-and-by, as we have seen, the king found that this plan
did not always succeed.
We read in another chapter how the barons forced King John to
promise to do justice, and to keep to the rules laid down in Magna
Charta. One of these rules was that the king should only take a
"fair " amount of money from the barons and .the people whenever he
wanted money to spend, It was very easy to say that the king
1 82 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
was only to take a fair amount, but who was to decide what was
fair ? If the king were strong, the king decided, and took what he
chose, for " might was right.'1'1 If the king were weak, then the barons
or the citizens of the towns decided for themselves what they thought
fair, and the king did not get what he wanted.
Neither way was a very good way, and both sides soon found
this out. It has often been said of Englishmen, " that they are easier
to lead than to drive " ; they are often more ready to give a thing
because they are asked to give, than to give it because they are
commanded to do so. Simon de Montfort knew this very well,
and after King Henry had been beaten at the battle of Lewes (1264),
Simon formed a plan by which he thought that the quarrel between
the king, who was always in want of money, and the barons and
people, who had got to pay the money, could be put an end to.
" Let the king" said Simon, "call together the barons and the citizens,
and let him tell them how much money it is that he wants, and what he wants
it for, and then it will be for the barons and the people to say how much
money they will give, and in what way it shall be collected. If the king asks
what is right and just, then what he asks will be given to him, and it
will be given all the more willingly because those who have to pay it will
know for what purpose it is to be used, and will have given it of their own
free will.'"
With this thought in his mind, Simon de Montfort and his friends
advised the king to call together a Parliament, to help him to govern the
country. And now, for the first time, a real Parliament was called
There sat in the Parliament only twenty-three barons. Some of the
barons were enemies of Montfort, and some thought they would offend
the king by coming ; others were afraid to come. There were also
a hundred and twenty Churchmen, and besides these there were the
" Members," as we now call them, chosen from each county and
town. The county members were called " Knights of the Shire," and,
indeed, that is what they are called to this day.
When a new Parliament is called together, notices are sent to
the Sheriff of each County Division, telling him to send to Parliament
a " Knight of the Shire " for that part of the country. There are
eight knights of the shire for Devon-shire. Little Rutland- shire has only
one, and York-shire has no less than twenty-seven.
But when we talk about Knights of the Shire, we generally call
them " County Members." Those who are sent to Parliament to
speak on behalf of the towns were called " Burgesses." We now
call them " Borough Members," which is very much the same thing.
The First Parliament.
"Now call we our High Court of Parliament,
And let us choose such limbs of noble counsel,
That the great body of our state may go
In equal rank with the best-govern' d nation."
"Henry IV.," Part II., Act V., Scene z
This first Parliament, which was called together six hundred ysars
ago, did not do very much. The country was still divided into two
parties, and Montfort had many enemies. The king was glad enough
to get rid of the Parliament, and Parliaments were not then as strong
as they are now, and so this first Parliament very soon came to an
end. But though it was the first, we know very well that it was
not the last, and from that time to this there has been a long chain
of Parliaments, some good, some bad. Through them the people
of England have been able to speak, and to say by what laws they
wished to be governed, and what money they wished to pay.
One thing we ought to notice. It was thought when Parliaments
first began, that it would be very hard for the king ever to get
enough money to do what was needed for the country. It was feared
that when the people of England were asked to give money, they
would always say " No," and would keep as much of their money
in their pockets as possible.
But this fear has not turned out to be well founded, and the reason is
that English people have generally had good sense. They know
well that a great deal of money must be spent in order that a great
country such as England may be properly governed, and they have,
therefore, nearly always been willing to give very large sums of
money out of their pockets to enable the king to govern their
country.
Nowadays the king or queen does not govern the country in the
same way as King Henry II. or King William I. used to do. In the
time of King Edward VII. it is Parliament which really decides who
shall govern the country. But money is wanted now just as much as
it was wanted in the time of King Henry, and every year Parliament
is asked to give many millions of pounds, which have to be paid by
the people of England in order that the Army and Navy may be kept
up, that the Judges and the Police may be paid, that the Post Office
may be carried on, and for many other purposes.
184 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
It is true that in the reign of Henry III. England seemed for a
time to be split up into two parties — the party of the king on the one
hand, and the party of the barons and the people on the other — and
that these two parties were always at war with each other. But it
would be a great mistake to think that this was always the case in the
history of England. Over and over again, the Parliaments of England
gladly gave the money that they were asked to give. It was only when
they thought the king was breaking the law, or doing some unjust act,
that they used their right to refuse to give him the money for which
he asked.
The Fall of Montfort.
" When the Barons in arms did King Henry oppose,
Sir Simon de Montfort their leader they chose;
A leader of courage undaunted was he,
And ofttimes he made their enemies flee.
11 At length, in the battle on Euesham Plain,
The Barons were routed, and Montfort was slain."
" Sir Simon de Montfort," from Percy's "Rcliques."
And now we must go back for a short time to Simon de Montfort,
and see what happened to him after he had persuaded the king to call
together a Parliament. It seemed as if from that time good-fortune
had forsaken him. Many who had been his friends left him, and his
enemies were always ready to do him harm.
Before long King Henry thought himself strong enough to take up
arms a second time against De Montfort. He was soon joined by his
son Edward, who had fought bravely by his father's side at the battle of
Lewes. Montfort, like a brave old soldier, put himself at the head of
his troops, and went out to meet the king. But this time everything
seemed against him. His army was small, and that of King Henry
was large ; and, worst of all, the king's army was under the command
of Prince Edward, whom Montfort himself had long ago instructed in
the duties of a soldier and a general.
At last the armies came face to face with each other near Evesham,
in Worcestershire (1265). Simon rode out in front of his troops to look
at the army of the enemy. When he saw it drawn up in good order, and
arranged with great art, he knew at once who must be the general who
THE FALL OF MONTFORT. 185
had displayed so much skill. " By the arm of St. James ! " he cried,
" they come on in wise fashion ; but it was from me that they learnt it." He
knew that his pupil, the young Prince Edward, was leading this great
army against him.
The battle began, and soon the small band with Simon were cut
down or forced to fly. Everywhere the victory rested with the young
prince. Simon himself was struck from his horse, and, at last, fight-
ing bravely, was killed upon the field of battle. Thus died Simon
de Montfort, one of the greatest men of whom we read in the history
of England.
Simon de Montfort was a foreigner by birth, but he had learnt to
become as English as the English themselves. He was true and just in
all his dealings, and, perhaps because he was so true and just, he made
many enemies, for many men had unjustly taken that to which they
had no right, and when they were made to give up that which did not
belong to them, they were angry with the man who stood up for what
was right.
A story is told of Simon which shows us what kind of a man he
was. The king promised that all the foreign barons should be made to
give up their castles. Now Simon himself was a foreigner, and held
the two great castles of Kenil worth and Odiham.
But Simon was not going to be the first to break a law which he
had helped to make. He gave up his two castles at once. But if he
was to obey the rule, he was determined that others should do so too.
His enemy, William of Valence, Earl of Pembroke, vowed that, whether
the king ordered it or no, he at any rate would not give up his castles.
Simon turned fiercely upon him : " You shall either give up your castles or
your head" said he. William of Valence was wise enough to know
that what Simon de Montfort said he meant, and in order to keep his
head he soon gave up his castles.
Perhaps the most noble thing to be remembered about Simon
de Montfort is the way in which he was always true to England and to
his friends. No man fought harder for King Henry, or did better
service to the king than Simon, and yet King Henry was always ready
to desert him, and to honour and reward the enemies of England,
rather than the man who was the friend of England.
Very different was the conduct of Simon. Once when Henry had
treated him with great injustice, and taken from him a large sum of
money, and many of his castles, Simon received from .the King of
France the offer of a much larger sum of money, and greater and
stronger castles, if he would serve Louis instead of King Henry ; for
throughout all Europe the name of Simon de Montfort was known as
1 86
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
that of a great leader and a wise counsellor. But Simon refused the
offer of the King of France with scorn, and would never consent to
serve any other country than England.
His name deserves a much higher place in the history of England
than that of his sovereign. The memory of King Henry should be held
in scorn by every Englishman, because he honoured and rewarded the
enemies of England, and hated and ill-treated those who were true to
England.
Henry III. died in the year 1272 in his sixty-sixth year.
i87
PART THREE.
ENGLAND UNDER ENGLISH KINGS.
1272-1485.
NOTE.
The Third Part of our history deals with the period of two
hundred and thirteen years which elapsed between the
accession of Edward I. and the death of the last of the
great line of Plantagenet kings, Richard III., on Bos-
worth field. The period is one of chequered fortunes.
We shall read first how under our kings, now real
Englishmen, the limits of the kingdom as it was to exist
for more than three centuries were decided : how the great
soldier Edward I. added Wales to his dominions, and
how his feeble son lost Scotland.
With Edward ILL begins the story of the terrible Hundred
Years War, which drained the resources of England
and France, a war in which brilliant triumphs were sue-
ceeded by melancholy failures, and in which English
kings and English soldiers first won and then lost the
fair kingdom of France.
Lastly we come to the history of the civil conflict known as
the " Wars of the Roses," and of the sordid quarrels
which followed in its course ; we see how the destruction
of the great nobles led to the growth of a new aristo-
cracy, while the crown obtained a poi&er and influence
in the country which even our greatest kings had never
hitherto secured.
Something is said of the social life of the country ; of
Wycliffe, the great religious teacher ; of Chaucer, the
great English poet, the creator of our modern speech,
and of Caxton the printer, the man to whom we owe the
fixing of our language in forms which have become
possessiojis for ever.
388
Ob' ENGLAND*
CHAPTER XXIII.
EDWARD I. AND
THE BREAKING OF WALES."
1272-1307.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF EDWARD I.
Edward I., King of England, sometimes
called " Edward Longshanks," son of
Henry III. and Eleanor of Provence,
b. 1239, became King 1272, d. 1307.
Eleanor of Castile (Spain), sister of Alfonso
IV., King of Castile, wife of Edward
I., m. 1254, d, 1290.
Edward, Prince of Wales, fourth son of
Edward I., and Eleanor of Castile,
b. 1284, afterwards King of England.
Margaret, sister of Philip III., King of France,
second wife of Edward I., m. 1299.
Alexander III., King of Scotland, d. 1285.
Margaret, sister of Edward I., wife of
Alexander III.
Margaret ("The Maid of Norway"),
granddaughter of Alexander and
Margaret and great-niece of Edward
I., recognised as Queen of Scotland,
d. 1290.
John Balliol, King of Scotland 1292. Re-
signed the crown before his death.
Robert BniCe, grandfather of Robert the
Bruce, King of Scotland, d. 1295.
Robert the Bruce, Baron Skelton Lord
of Annandale, afterwards King of
Scotland, b. 1274, became King
1306.
Comyn, Regent of Scotland, murdered by
Robert the Bruce 1306.
William Wallace, Scottish patriot, executed
1 sos-
Llewelyn, the last Welsh Prince of Wales,
d. 1282.
Rudolph Of Fapsburg, ancestor of the
present Emperor of Austria, chosen
Emperor 1273.
Great Writers -
Roger Bacon, d. 1294.
Dante (the Italian P.et), b. 1265.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF EDWARD I.
1272.
1274.
1275.
1282.
1284.
1285
1290.
1292.
1294.
Edward, then in Palestine on a Crusade,
proclaimed King.
Edward reaches England.
Persecution of the Jews in England.
Edward invades Wales.
The English capture Anglesey, but are
defeated in North Wales.
Edward invades South Wales.
Death of Llewelyn.
Prince Edward presented to the Welsh
at Carnarvon Castle.
English law introduced into Wales.
Alexander III., King of Scotland, dies.
Death of Margaret, "The Maid of
Norway," and Queen of Scotland.
Balliol and Bruce claim the Scottish
throne.
Edward decides in favour of Balliol.
Edward puts down a second insurrection
in Wales.
Balliol submits to Edward as his
feudal lord.
The Scots make an alliance with France,
and declare war against England.
Roger Bacon dies.
1295. Edward marches into Scotland.
1296. Edward captures Berwick.
The Scots defeated at Dunbar. Con-
quest of Scotland.
1297. William Wallace heads a Scottish
insurrection.
The English defeated by Wallace at
Stirling Bridge.
Edward begins war with the French in
Flanders.
Tre barons refuse to give aid until
Edward had confirmed the " Char-
ters."
1298. Edward destroys the Scottish army at
Falkirk.
1299. Edward marries Margaret, sister of
Philip, King of France.
1305. Wallace taken and executed.
1306. Robert the Bruce murders Comyn,
Regent of Scotland, and joins the
Scots.
Bruce becomes King of Scotland.
1307. Edward marches north.
Death of Edward at Burgh-by-Sands,
aged 69.
ENGLAND AT WAR. 189
OTHER EVENTS OF IMPORTANCE WHICH HAPPENED DURING
THIS REIGN.
1282. Massacre of the Normans in Sicily,
known as the " Sicilian Vespers."
1306. William Tell, the hero of Switzerland,
supposed to have revolted against
Gesler, the Austrian Governor, in
this year.
1307. Switzerland declares itself indepen-
dent.
MarCO PolO, the great Venetian
traveller, visits China and Japan
during this reign.
England at War.
"In the person of the great Edward, the work of reconciliation is com-
pleted. Norman and Englishmen have become one under the best and greatest
of our later kings, the first who, since the Norman entered our land, . . .
followed a purely English policy."— Freeman.
WE now come to the reign of three kings — father, son, and grandson :
Edward I.,<19> Edward II.,(20) and Edward III.(21)
These three reigns cover a long period in the history of
England, for from the day when Edward I. came to the throne, to the
day on which his grandson, Edward III., died, is no less than one
hundred and five years.
These one hundred and five years are full of interest; much
happened in them that Englishmen ought to know and care about,
but we have not room here to follow every subject in detail and
we must therefore try to choose those which are the most im-
portant.
The reigns of the three Edwards must always be remembered as
times of war. It is not always that the wars which take place during
any part of a country's history are the most important things to read
about and to remember.
We sometimes give up too much time to reading about battles and
fighting just because they are interesting and exciting, and forget that
the battles sometimes make really very little difference to the country,
and that what happens during many years of peace is often far more
important than what happens during a few years of war. But we
cannot say about the wars of King Edward I. and of his son and grand-
son, that they were unimportant, and that they made no real difference
to the history of England. On the contrary, we shall see they made
1 90 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
a very great difference indeed, and that England would not have been
what it is if these wars had not been fought.
Three countries touched rr lay very close to the borders of England
With each of these countries England, during the reign of the Edwards,
was at war. Wales, Scotland, and France were in turn invaded, and the
red cross of " St. George " L was seen on the Severn, the Forth, and the
Seine.
The wars which began with the accession of Edward I., and ended,
or rather ceased for a time, at the death of his grandson, Edward III.,
had very different results for the three countries in which they were
carried on. It may be said that the one hundred and five years which
passed between 1272 and 1377 saw " ^ie Breaking of Wales" " the
Making of Scotland," and " the Ruin of France."
We shall learn in the next chapters what is the meaning of these
three sayings, and how far it is true to say that the wars of the Edwards
" broke" Wales, " made" Scotland, and "ruined" France.
"The Breaking" of Wales."
"The DIVINE PROVIDENCE having now, of its favour, wholly trans-
ferred to our dominion the land of Wales, with its inhabitants, heretofore
subject to us in feudal right, all obstacles ceasing; and having annexed
and united the same unto the crown of the aforesaid realm as a member
of the same body ; we therefore .... desiring that the people of those
lands who haue submitted themselves to our will should be protected in
security, under fixed laws and customs, haue caused to be rehearsed
before us and the nobles of our realm, the laws and customs in those
parts hitherto in use; which, having fully understood, we haue, by the
advice of the said nobles, abolished some of them, some we haue
allowed, and some we haue corrected, and we haue commanded and
ordained certain others to be added thereto."— From the Preamble to "The
Statutes of Wales," passed by the Parliament held at Rhuddlan in Flintshire, 1284.
The Saxons in the long wars that followed the landing of Hengist
and Horsa, broke down bit by bit the power of the Britons. The
Saxons landed on the south and east coasts of England, and as they
marched on towards the west, they drove before them the British
tribes who refused to submit, and who were lucky enough to escape
from the swords of their pursuers.
1 The English Flag, see frontispiece.
" THE BREAKING OF WALES" 191
Step by step the Saxons advanced, and step by step the Britons
retreated before them. The Saxons reached the sea at Carlisle, at
Chester, the border between England and Wales, at Bristol, and at Ply-
mouth. It seemed as if the unhappy Britons must either be pushed
into the Irish Channel, or be utterly destroyed by their fierce enemies.
But if we take a map of England and draw a line joining Plymouth,
Bristol, Chester, and Carlisle, we shall see that to the west of this line
there lie two great pieces of country which form the most western parts
of England, and which we know to be Cornwall and Wales.
In these distant corners the retreating Britons at last found refuge.
Cornwall was very far off, and in Wales the steep mountains and thick
forests formed a protection against the Saxon armies. It was in
Cornwall and Wales, therefore, that the Britons at last settled, and it
is in Cornwall and Wales that their descendants are to be found to
this day.
But it was not long before the Saxons made their way into Cornwall.
Between Devonshire and Cornwall there is no great natural division,
no broad river like the Severn flows between them, nor are there in
Cornwall high mountains like Snowdon and Cader Idris. Besides, it
was easy for the sailors of Dover, Portsmouth, and Plymouth to sail
down to the Land's End and into the harbours of Fowey, Fal-
mouth, and Penzance without fear of being interrupted by the British
tribes on land. And so it happened that before the time of Edward I.
Cornwall had become a part of the Kingdom of England, and that the
Saxons and Britons had already begun to mix together in the west. It
is true that Cornwall was more British than any other part of England,
and so it is now.
There is a well-known rhyme which says that
"By Tre, Pol, and Pen,
You may know Comishmen"
The rhyme means that if a man has a name which begins with " Tre,"
such as " 7>0venen," or with "Pol," such as "Po/timore," or with "Pen,"
such as " Ptfwrose," he is most likely a Cornishman. Now Tre, Pol,
and Pen are all British words. " Tre " means a village, "Pol" means
a pool, and " Pen " means the top of a hill : so even now we can see
marks of Cornwall being more British than Saxon. But nowadays we
may go from Saltash * to Penzance without hearing a word of any other
language than English ; and even so long ago as the time of Edward I.
Cornwall was fast becoming an English county.
1 Saltash is the first town we reach on entering Cornwall from Devonshire by the Great
Western Railway. Penzance is the last town in Cornwall be.fpre we reach the Land's End.
192
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
But the history of Wales is altogether different. If we travel from
Bangor to Barmouth, we go through village after village where all the
old people, and nearly all the young ones, talk Welsh instead of English,
and in which there are still some people who can talk no language but
Welsh. These people are the descendants of the Britons who held
their own against the Saxons a thousand years ago, and who have
lived in the land,
and who have kept
their own language
from that time to
this.
Up to the time
of Edward I. the
Kings of England
had never been able
to make the Welsh
submit to them.
Armies had often
been sent across the
Severn into the
mountains of Mont-
gomery and Breck-
nockshire. Some-
times the English
and the Normans
had gained a victory,
but the bravery of
the Welsh, and the
difficulty of fighting
in pathless valleys
and on steep moun-
tain sides, had al-
ways been too much
for the invaders in
the end. They had been driven out, and the Welsh princes, though
conquered for a time, had always got back what had been lost.
But now they had to deal with a man who was both a great
soldier and a wise king ; and at last, in spite of their own bravery,
and in spite of the protection which their mountains and their forests
afforded, the Welsh were forced to admit that they had found a
master.
In the reigns of John and Henry III. there had been a great deal of
MAP SHOWING THE BRITISH DISTRICTS IN ENGLAND.
THE BREAKING OF WALES. 193
fighting along the border-land between England and Wales. The
Norman barons had built strong castles on the border, or sometimes
beyond it, in lands which they had taken from the Welsh. And the
Welsh on their side often crossed the border into England to rob and
plunder the English.
In the reign of Henry III., while the long war between Henry
and the barons was going on, the Welsh had become more powerful
than before. Under their Prince Llewelyn they joined together to
take back from the English all that they had lost, and even made
an attack upon the English town of Shrewsbury.
At first Llewelyn was victorious, and the Welsh, proud of the
bravery of their prince, came from all parts of the country to fight
for him, and for their land. The Welsh have always been lovers
of music and song. To this day some of the best and most sweet-
voiced choirs in the kingdom are those which come from Wales.
Each year there is held in Wales a great meeting called an
" Eisteddfod," pronounced " Eistethvode," at which poems and songs
which have been written on purpose are read and sung, and at
which prizes are given to those who have done best. Six hundred
years ago the Welsh were the same song-loving, musical people that
they are now ; and when Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, came forward
to lead his people against the English, and when it seemed as if he
were going at last to lead his countrymen to victory, there came
from all parts, harpers, and poets, or " Bards," as they were called,
who sang his praises, and foretold the great deeds which he was
to do.
But, alas ! for the Welsh, neither their own courage nor the
promises of victory made to them by the Bards, were enough to save
them from defeat. Weary of the attacks made upon the English
border, King Edward at last determined to march into Wales. He
sent a message to Llewelyn bidding him do homage to him as
King of Wales. Llewelyn refused to obey, and the English army
marched into his country.
At first it seemed as if victory were to be on the side of the
Welsh ; the English were defeated in North Wales. But ere long the
fortune of war changed, and the Welsh were everywhere beaten.
Llewelyn, the last Welsh Prince of Wales, was killed in battle in South
Wales (1282), and Edward was soon master of the whole country,
from Bangor on the north to Pembroke on the south.
The king used his victory wisely and well. Strong castles were
built throughout the country to guard against another rising. On page
195 is a picture of one of them, which is standing to this day, and which
H
194 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
may be seen by anyone who pays a visit to North Wales. The
country was divided into twelve counties. English laws took the
place of the old Welsh laws, and the king's son, the little Prince
Edward(20), who was born in Carnarvon Castle (1284), was made Prince
of Wales (1301).
From that day to this the eldest son of the king or queen of
England has borne as his first and highest title, the name of Prince
of Wales. From the time of Edward I. the history of Wales as a
separate country comes to an end. The people of Wales kept their
old language, their old customs, and their old history, but they
gave up their old laws and their old princes. Thus we see how
the first war of the three Edwards ended in the "Breaking of Wales,"
and in joining together once more all the people of England who
had been separated for a time by the fight between Saxon and Briton.
CHAPTER XXIV
SCOTLAND.
"Over the Border."
"At the park afterward his parliament set he,
The good King Edward, at Lincoln his citie ;
At St. Catherine's house the Earl Marshal lay ;
In the Broadgate lay The Bruse, erle was he that day.
The King lay at Middleham ; it is the bishop's towne :
And other lords came, in the countrie up and downe."
Longtoft, describing the Parliament of Lincoln.
WE now come to the second set of wars which was fought during the
reigns of the three Edwards, and which ended in the " Making of
Scotland." Before we can understand how these wars began, and
how they ended, we must turn our attention for a short time to the
history of Scotland.
We are accustomed to think of England and Scotland as having
been in old times two quite distinct countries, like England and France.
io6 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
We think of the English living on the south side of the " Border" and
the Scots on the north side as people of two different nations, each
governed by its own king and having its own separate Government.
It is true that a time came when the two countries were really
divided in this way. But up to the time of Edward I. there was
no such distinction. The division between England arid Scotland is
very different from the division between England and Wales. Between
Somersetshire and Glamorganshire, there runs the broad water of the
Bristol Channel ; and the traveller has scarcely crossed the border
between England and Wales, at any place between Chester and Cardiff,
before he finds himself among the steep mountains and narrow valleys
in which the Welsh armies were accustomed to take refuge.
But it is quite possible to go from England into Scotland and never
know when the border has been crossed. It is true that at the eastern
end the valley of the Tweed is deep, and makes a clear line between the
two countries ; but further to the west there is scarcely anything to
show where England ends and Scotland begins. If we take the train
from Carlisle to Dumfries, we shall stop first at a little station called
Gretna Green. Gretna Green is in Scotland, but one must keep a very
sharp look-out from the carriage window to know at what moment the
train crosses the little stream of the Gretna which here divides the
two countries.
Nor is there any very great difference between the way people
talk in the North of England and in the South of Scotland. The
Welsh which is spoken in Carnarvonshire is quite a different language
from the English which is spoken in Shropshire, but there is really very
little difference between the talk of Cumberland-men and Peebles-men.
Indeed, there is no reason why there should be much difference, for
they are all really part of the same people.
But if we go further north, across the Firth of Forth, and beyond
Stirling, we shall find a very different state of things. Here the
traveller leaves behind him the fertile fields and broad plains of the
Lowlands, and begins to climb the steep sides or thread his way through
the narrow passes of the Highland mountains. Here, even in our own
day, we find a people speaking a language which is not English, but
which is more like Welsh. It is called " Gaelic" and the Highlanders,
who talk Gaelic, are quite a different people from the English-speaking
Lowlanders.
When the Saxons came into England, and drove the Britons back
before them, they did not stop either at the Tweed or the Gretna.
There was no reason why those who had made their way into what is
now Yorkshire, Durham, Cumberland, and Northumberland should not
" Oi'RR THE BORDER.*- 197
find their way into what we now call the Scottish counties of Peebles,
Berwick, Selkirk, and The Lothians.
The Saxons, indeed, spread far and wide throughout the Low-
lands of Scotland, and either drove out the Scots and Picts whom they
found there, or became mixed up with them. The south of Scotland
became nearly as Saxon as the north of England. In the same way,
when William the Conqueror had made himself master of England, the
Norman barons who had followed him passed on quite as a matter of
course into the south of Scotland. Lands were given to them in Scot-
land as well as in England. They held these lands from the Scottish
king, but at the same time they kept their lands in England, and
looked to William and the kings of England as their realfetidal lords.1
Scotland itself was divided among many tribes and clans, and the
early Kings of Scotland had but little power over the whole country.
The people of Scotland had not at that time become one people ; we
shall see in this chapter how they became so. The kings of England,
for a long time before the reign of Edward I., had claimed to be kings
of Scotland, and English armies had sometimes marched far into
Scotland. But the English kings had, as a rule, too much to do near
home to allow of their taking much trouble to make good their claim
to Scotland.
But when Edward I. came to the throne, a great change had come
over England. The long wars between Henry and the barons were
over. Edward himself was a true English king. The Normans and
the Saxons had learnt to live together without quarrelling. The
Norman barons, who spoke French, and who were looked upon by
the English as foreigners and enemies, had now become the barons of
England, many of whom talked English and were as ready to fight for
England as they had formerly been to fight against England.
The king himself was beloved by all the people. The English
hailed him as the first really " English " king since the death of Harold.
Nor was Edward beloved for this reason only. Tall, handsome, and
strong, with golden hair, he seemed to the English to be a real English-
man. He was proud and wilful, but he was a true lover of his people,
seeking to do what was just and honest. His soldiers loved him for
his courage, and for his readiness to share in all their hardships. The
people looked upon him as their protector against the nobles. He was
a religious man, a hard worker, and was always true to England and
to the English people. It is not wonderful, therefore, that the English
people, though they often feared him, learnt to love him, and were
ready to follow him.
1 See page 114
198 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The Fight for the Scottish Crown.
"Nemo me impune lacessit." l
" Who. dare meddle wi' me ? "
We have seen how Edward led his armies into Wales ; how he
defeated and killed Llewelyn, the last of the Welsh princes, and how
he added the twelve Welsh counties to the kingdom of England. It
was, perhaps, not strange that when he had thus conquered one part
of our island, he should turn his attention to another. Llewelyn was
killed in the year 1282. In 1296, or fourteen years later, Edward was
marching at the head of an English army into Scotland.
On the death of Alexander III., King of Scotland (1285), the next heir
to the throne was a little girl named Margaret, grand-daughter of the
late king, and daughter of Eric, King of Norway. Margaret, or
as she was sometimes called, " The Fair Maid of Norway," was sent
for, and she started from her home to become Queen of Scotland.
But the child fell sick on the long voyage from Norway, and died
ere the ship reached Scotland.
Then there came a terrible dispute. No fewer than thirteen persons
claimed the crown of Scotland. Foremost among the claimants were
two Norman barons, who held lands in both Scotland and England.
One was John of Balliol, and the other was Robert Bruce. Balliol was
Lord of Galloway in Scotland; Robert Bruce was Lord of Skelton in York-
shire, and was also Lord of Annandale and Carrick in Scotland.
As no agreement could be come to as to who should become king
of Scotland, it was at last decided to bring the matter before King
Edward, and to ask him to decide. Edward heard the case and de-
cided in favour of John Balliol, and so Balliol became King of Scotland.
Edward now thought that a good time had come for making the
Scottish king admit once for all the right of the King of England to be
the feudal lord of the King of Scotland ; and he commanded Balliol to
do homage to him. Balliol was willing to do this, but the Scots would
not allow him to yield, and at last he had to send a message to Edward
refusing to admit his claim.
Edward's anger was roused. He summoned his army and marched
1 The Latin motto which accompanies the " thistle," the emblem of Scotland. It means,
" No one can touch me with impunity." It is freely, but not incorrectly translated in the famous
motto of the great Scottish family of the Campbells " Wha dare meddle wi' me ? "
THE FIGHT FOR THE SCOTTISH CROWN.
199
northwards. Among the barons who followed him was Robert the
Bruce, Lord of Skelton, Annandale, and Carrick, the, grandson of Robert
Bruce, who had claimed the Scottish throne. Soon the royal army
came to Berwick-on-Tweed, which was then a Scottish town. The
townsmen refused to give up the city, and Edward attacked it with
fury. Berwick was taken (1296), and thousands of the enemy were put
to death. It was
decided that the
city should for the
future belong to
England, and from
that time to this
it has formed part
of England. It
has always been
remembered, how-
ever, that it once
was a part of Scot-
land, and so it be-
came the custom,
when speaking
of the dominions <//
of the King of
England, to say,
England, Ireland,
and the town of
Berwick - upon-
Tweed.
The English
kings would have
liked to say
that they were
Kings of England,
Ireland, and
Scotland, but
they could never
make themselves masters of Scotland, and the only bit of Scottish
land which they were able to keep was the town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed. And so it was that instead of saying that they were kings of
England, Ireland, and Scotland, they had to content themselves with
saying that they were Kings of England, Ireland, and the toivn of
Berwick-upon- Tweed.
THE CORONATION CHAIR AND "THE STONE OF DESTINY.'
200 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
It was not till four hundred years after the death of Edward I. that
the kings of England and Ireland could call themselves kings of Scot-
land also. Until a few years ago, at the beginning of the laws which
were made by Parliament, and which had to do with England alone,
and not with Scotland, it was written that the law was to be obeyed in
England and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed.
But we must get back to King Edward and his army. The king was
everywhere victorious. He beat the Scots in the great battle at Falkirk
(1298), where the English archers, who afterwards became so famous,
broke the ranks of the Scots with their flights of arrows. The English
army got as far as Scone, and took thence the famous Stone, called
" The Stone of Destiny,'" upon which the Kings of Scotland had always
been crowned. Edward brought the stone to Westminster, where it
was placed under the Coronation Chair built by his order for the King
of England, and there we may see it to this day if we pay a visit to
Westminster Abbey.
But defeat taught the Scots a good lesson which they were not slow
to learn. Their quarrels were for a time put aside, and all Scotsmen
began to join together against the English enemy.
It was at this time that a great leader arose among the Lowland
Scots, a man whose name is justly famous throughout Scotland to this
day. This leader was William Wallace. His courage, his skill, and his
fierce hatred of the English, all helped to make him a great hero in the
eyes of the Scots. He had the most wonderful adventures^ his life was
often in danger, but over and over again he surprised and defeated the
English troops.
He did what was even more important than this. He put courage
into the hearts of his countrymen, and he made them feel that it was a
right and good thing to fight, and if necessary to die, for their country.
A great Scotsman has written a wonderful book which contains the
story of the adventures of William Wallace. Everyone should read
this book. It is called " The Tales of a Grandfather" and it is written by
Sir Walter Scott.
But despite the bravery of Wallace, there seemed little chance for
Scotland as long as Edward I. was alive. Wallace himself was taken
prisoner, sent to London, and put to death (1305), and Edward, though
he had now grown old and feeble, marched with a great army towards
Scotland determined to put down the Scots once more, and for all.
But the old man's strength was fast failing. He was carried in a
litter as far as Cumberland, and reached a little place named Burgh-
on-Sands, from which he could see Scotland. But here ended his1
journey and his life. He died before he could cross the border (1307).
THE FIGHT FOR THE SCOTTISH CROWS.
201
The first Edward was a great and wise king, and had he lived
Scotland would hardly have escaped conquest. But his death saved
Scotland, for his son who came after him was as weak and unfor-
tunate as his father was strong and successful.
CHAPTER XXV.
EDWARD II.— "THE
MAKING
1307-1327.
OF SCOTLAND.'
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF
EDWARD II.
Edward II., King of England, fourth son of
Edward I. and Eleanor of Castile, b.
1284, became King 1307, d. 1327.
Isabella, daughter of Philip IV., King of
France, and wife of Edward II., m.
1308, d. 1358.
Edward, Prince of Wales, son of Edward II.,
afterwards King of England, b.
1312.
John, Earl of Cornwall, son of Edward II.,
died when a child.
Eleanor, daughter of Edward II.
Joan, daughter of Edward II., married David
Bruce, son of Robert the Bruce,
King of Scotland.
Robert the Bruce, Baron Skelton, and
Earl of Annandale, b. 1274, became
King of Scotland 1306, d. 1329.
Piers GavestOn, favourite of Edward II.,
a Gascon knight, executed by the
Barons 1312.
Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, cousin to Edward
II., and uncle to Queen Isabella, the
leader of the Barons against the King,
executed 1322.
Hugh Despencer, favourite of King Edward
after the death of Gaveston, beheaded
by Roger Mortimer, Earl of March,
1326.
James Douglas, fought under Robert the
Bruce at Bannockburn, killed in
Spain 1330.
Philip IV., King of France, d. 1314.
Edward Bruce, brother of Robert Bruce,
d. 1318.
Dante (the Italian poet), d. 1321.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF EDWARD II.
1307. Edward becomes king, and makes
Gaveston his favourite.
1308. Gaveston banished by Parliament,
directed by Thomas of Lancaster.
1309. Return of Gaveston from Ireland.
1310. The Barons unite against the King,
and form a Council, called "The
Lords Ordainers."
1311. Gaveston again banished.
1312. War between the King and the Barons.
Gaveston beheaded.
1314. Edward undertakes an expedition for
the relief of Stirling.
Great defeat of the English by Robert
Bruce at Bannockburn.
H*
1315. Edward Bruce, brother of Robert
Bruce, invades Ireland, and declares
himself King of Ireland.
1318. Edward Bruce killed in Ireland.
1321. Edward makes Despencer his favourite.
War between the King and the Barons.
1322. Overthrow of the Barons. Capture and
execution of Thomas of Lancaster.
1323. Peace concluded with Scotland.
Roger Mortimer escapes from prison,
and takes up arms against the King.
1325. Queen Isabella joins the rebel Barons.
1326. Defeat and flight of the King.
1327. The King deposed and imprisoned in
Berkeley Castle. Murder of Edward.
202 HISTORY OF ENGLAND
Edward II.
It is not easy to imagine a man more innocent and inoffensive
than this unhappy king,1 nor a prince less fitted for governing that
fierce and turbulent people subjected to his authority."— Hume.
THE reign of Edward II.,(20) son of Edward I.,(19) is not a pleasing one
for an Englishman to read about. It is a story of bad government
and violence and defeat.
It was a long reign, lasting from 1307 to 1327, and there is much
that might be told about it, but we have only space here to speak
at length of one great event for which it must be remembered.
We said in an earlier chapter that during the reigns of the three
Edwards, we should find the story of " The Breaking of Wales," " The
Making of Scotland," and " The Ruin of France" It was in the reign of
Edward II. that the Making of Scotland took place.
We saw at the end of the last chapter how Edward I., angered at
the resistance of the Scots, had marched northward with a great army,
intending once more to subdue them. We saw how Edward died
within sight of Scotland, and how that country was freed from fear of
an attack by its greatest and most powerful enemy.
It is impossible to say what might have happened to Scotland had
Edward I. lived long enough to lead his army into the country a second
time. Edward was a brave and skilful soldier, and had already won
great victories both in Wales and Scotland ; but the man who came
after him was as weak as Edward I. was strong. He was no soldier,
and had neither the power nor the wish to lead armies in battle. It
was a great gain to Scotland that the king against whom her people
had now to fight was so different from the great King Edward.
But there was another thing which was even more fortunate for
Scotland than the death of Edward I. We shall remember that when
Margaret, the " Fair Maid of Norway," died, no fewer than thirteen
persons came forward to claim the throne of Scotland. Among them
were John Balliol, whom Edward had made king, and Robert Bruce.
We saw how, when Balliol had offended King Edward, the English
king marched against him and drove him from his throne. We also
saw how, when Wallace came forward to fight for his country, he in turn
1 Edward II.
EDWARD 11.
203
was attacked and defeated by Edward. Nor should we have forgotten
how Bobert the Bruce, the grandson of Robert Bruce of whom we
read just above, was one of the barons who rode with the English
king, and who fought against the Scots under his banner.
When, however, Balliol had been driven from the throne, and
Wallace had been defeated and put to death, there came a change.
William Wallace, by his bravery and success, had put courage into
the hearts of the Scots, and the idea of freeing their country altogether
from the English, and from the power of the English king, had grown
quickly among them. The time had come when Bruce could hope
to claim the crown of Scotland, and he determined to do so. At
first secretly, and then openly, he deserted the English party, and
soon placed himself at the head of the Scots who had followed the
brave William Wallace, and of all those who were ready to fight for
Scotland against the English.
No sooner had Robert Bruce put himself at the head of the Scottish
army, than the hopes of Scotland began to brighten. There is no
name of which Scotsmen are more proud than that of Robert the
Bruce, and rightly so : for he was indeed the man who did more than
any other to free their country and to defeat their enemies.
• Bruce was a man of great strength and courage, tall and handsome,
and skilled in all the arts of war. He had also learnt how to win the
love and trust of the Scottish people. The history of Scotland is full
of stories of the bravery and adventures of Robert the Bruce ; and both
Robert and Bruce have been favourite names in Scotland ever since
the days of the great king.
204 HISTORY OF ENGLAND
Bannoekburn.
"And the best names that England knew
Claim'd in the death-prayer dismal due.
Yet mourn not, land of fame !
Though ne'er the leopards^ on thy shield
Retreated from so sad a field
Since Norman William came.
Oft may thine annals justly boast.
Of battles stern by Scotland lost ;
Grudge not her victory,
When for her free-born rights she strove —
Rights dear to all who freedom love,
To none so dear as thee ! "—Scott : " Rokeby."
Thus we see that, on the death of Edward I., matters looked more
hopeful for the Scots than they had done for a long time past. At first
they feared lest the English army which lay upon the border should
continue its march upon Edinburgh ; but the new King of England,
who cared little for success in war, gave up the task which his father
had begun, and returned to London. He soon showed himself unfit to
rule. He took as his friend and favourite an unworthy man, named
Piers Gaveston. He loaded Gaveston with favours; nor was this all.
He allowed Gaveston to insult the proud barons who had been faithful
servants to Edward I., and who saw with anger the riches and the
power which were being given to an upstart stranger.
A long quarrel followed, between the king and Gaveston on the one
side, and the barons on the other, which ended at last in the death of
Gaveston. The barons joined together, and by force compelled the
king to dismiss his favourite from all his offices. Nor were they
content with this. Some of the fiercest of the barons, led by the Earl
of Warwick, seized Gaveston themselves and put him to death (1312).
But while the king and the barons were thus quarrelling between
themselves, the government of England was going from bad to worse.
Men ceased to fear the king or to obey his orders. Instead of fighting
against the enemies of the country, the best soldiers in England
were fighting against each other. Nothing was done to help the
English soldiers in Scotland, and Robert Bruce was now fighting
* The " Leopards" or " Lions" in the coat of arpis of England.
BANNOCKBURN.
205
fiercely against them in every part. Town after town was taken from
the English, till at last only the strong fortress of Stirling was left to
them. The Governor of Stirling Castle, Sir Philip Mowbray, a brave
soldier, sent a message to King Edward. " If you do not come and
help me before midsummer," said he, " I must give up your castle
to the Scottish king."
Then at last King Edward was forced for very shame to try and do
STIRLING CASTLE AT THE PRESENT DAY.
(From a / holograph by G. IV. Wilson &> Co., Aberdeen.)
something to save his last fortress in Scotland. He raised a great
army, and the barons, eager to regain what Edward I. had won,
came from all parts to follow the king. The first thing to do was
to reach Stirling, where the brave Sir Philip Mowbray was shut up.
But between the English border and Stirling Castle lay Robert the
Bruce with his army. Soon the two armies came face to face. On the
English side there were not less than 100,000 men, of whom 3,000
were clad in armour. Among them were the greatest nobles in
England. King Edward himself was at the head of the army, but
he was not a general like his father, and it would have been better
for England if he had stayed behind.
206 HlS-TORY OF ENGLAND.
The army of the Scots numbered 40,000 men. At their head were
Robert the Bruce, James Douglas, and Randolph. There is no space
here to tell the story of Douglas or Randolph, but we must not forget
their names, for we shall find them very often when we come to
read the history of Scotland. They were three brave and practised
generals, and those whom they led were ready to follow them to
the death.
The place at which the two armies met was the village of Bannock-
burn. It was on the 24th of June, in the year 1314, that the great
battle which has made Bannockburn so famous was fought. A story
is told of an adventure which befell Bruce the night before the battle,
and which shows us what kind of man he was.
There was a knight among the English, called Sir Henry de Bohun,
who thought this would be a good opportunity to gain great fame to
himself, and put an end to the war, by killing King Robert. The king
being poorly mounted, and having no lance, Bohun galloped on him
suddenly and furiously, thinking, with his long spear, and his tall
powerful horse, easily to bear him down to the ground.
King Robert saw him, and permitted him to come very near;
then suddenly turned his pony a little to one side, so that Sir Henry
missed him with the lance-point, and was in the act of being carried
past him by the career of his horse. But as he passed, King Robert
rose up in his stirrups, and struck Sir Henry so terrible a blow on
the head with Jus battle-axe that it broke to pieces his iron helmet as if
it had been a nutshell, and hurled him from his saddle. He was dead
before he reached the ground.
This gallant action was blamed by the Scottish leaders, who
thought Bruce ought not to have exposed himself to so much danger,
when the safety of the whole army depended on him. The king only
kept looking at his weapon, which was injured by the force of the
blow, and said, " I have broken my good battle-axe." l
The next day, the 24th of June, the battle began. The English archers
rained arrows upon the enemy, but the Scottish horsemen rode in among
their ranks, cut them down, and dispersed them. Then the English
horsemen came on at the charge, and they, too, soon fell into confusion.
The night before the battle, the Scottish king had given orders that
steel spikes, or caltrops, as they were called, should be scattered about
on the grass, and that pits should be dug. As the heavily-armed English
Horse came on at full speed, their feet were pierced by the caltrops,
and they fell headlong into the pits which had been prepared.
1 Part of the account on this page is taken from Sir Walter Scott's " Tales of a Grandfather."
208 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
While the troops were in confusion, the Scots fell upon them, and
soon it was clear that the battle was lost for the English. The king
himself turned and fled. With great difficulty he reached the sea at
Dunbar, after riding sixty miles at full speed. Thirty thousand of the
English were killed, and all the waggons of provisions belonging to the
English army fell into the hands of the Scots. It was a great defeat
for England, and a great victory for Scotland.
From that time forward Robert Bruce was hailed by all as King of
Scotland ; and from his time down to the reign of James VI. of Scotland
(three hundred years) the kingdom of Scotland held its own against all
enemies. Nor did Scotland ever again come under a foreign king.
When King James VI. left Scotland it was only to go to England,
there to reign as King of England as well as of Scotland ; and ever
since the happy day when England and Scotland became united
together under one king, the two countries have been but one — not
because one country had beaten the other in war, but because the
people in both were agreed that " in union there is strength" l
The reign of Edward II. was as unfortunate for the king himself as
it was for his country. He quarrelled again and again with the barons
and at last he was taken prisoner by them, deprived of his crown, and
shut up in Berkeley Castle (1327). There he was cruelly murdered ; but
there were few among his subjects who regretted that this weak and
unwise king had been driven from his throne.
CHAPTER XXVI.
EDWARD III.— "THE RUIN OF FRANCE/'
1327-1377.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF
EDWARD III.
Edward, King of England, son of Edward II.
and Queen Isabella, b. 1312, became
King 1^27. d. 1377.
PMlippa of Hainault, wife of Edward III.,
m. 1328, d. 1360.
Edward the Black Prince, eldest son of
Edward III., b. 1330, d. 1376.
Lionel, Duke of Clarence, b. 1338, d. 1368.
John of Gaunt, b. 1340.
Edmund Langley, I 'ukeofYork,b. 1341.
Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, b. 1355, and
two other sons and four daughters.
Isabella, wu'ow of Edward II., d. 1358.
Roger Mortimer, friend of Queen Isabella,
fianged 1330.
Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, d. 1329.
James VI. of Scotland became James I. of Great Britain and Ireland in the year 1603.
20Q
David Bruce, son of Robert Bruce, d. 1371.
Joanna, wife of David Bruce, and sister of
Edward III., d. 1362.
Edward Balliol, claimant to the crown of
Scotland, supported by Edward III.,
crowned King of Scotland 1332, re-
signed the cr< wn 1356
PMlip the Fortunate, King of France.d. 1350.
John II , King of France, taken prisoner at
Poitiers, d. 1364.
Charles V., King of France.
Eustace de St. Pierre, one of the six
burghers of Calais who submitted to
Edward III.
Sir Walter Manny, Edward's most success-
ful general, d. 1372.
Bertrand dU GueSClm, a great French
general.
Sir John ChandOS, a great English soldier,
d. 1369 ; took Bertrand du Guesclin
prisoner at the battle of Najara, in
Spain, 1367.
Robert Stuart, grandson of David Bruce,
became King of Scotland 1371. The
first of the Stuart kings.
Jean FrOlSSart, a great French historian,
who wrote " Froissart's Chronicles."
Lived long in England, d. 1410.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF EDWARD III.
1327. February ist, Edward III. becomes
King.
Isabella and Roger Mortimer regents.
1330. Isabella imprisoned and Mortimer exe-
cuted.
1332. Edward assists Edward Balliol against
David Bruce, and invades Scot-
land.
1333. Edward defeats the Scots at Halidon
Hill. Balliol proclaimed King of
Scotland.
1336. Second Expedition into Scotland.
1337'
Commencement
years' War.
of the Hundred
1340. War with France. The English fleet
defeats the French fleet at Sluys.
1342. War with France renewed.
1346. Victory of Crecy.
King David of Scotland taken prisoner
at the battle of Neville's Cross.
1347. Capture of Calais.
1356. Victory of Poitiers. Truce with France.
1359. Second Invasion of France.
1360. Treaty of Bretigny.
1367. Battle of Najara.
1376. The " Good " Parliament.
Death of the B.ack Prince.
1377. Death of Edward III.
The Beginning- of the Great War.
" Fly, countrymen and citizens of France !
Sweet-flow' ring peace, the root of happy life,
Is quite abandon'd and expuls'd the land :
Instead of whom ransack-constraining war
Sits raven like upon your houses' tops :
Slaughter and mischief walk within your streets,
And, unrestrain'd make havoc as they pass."
From the Play of " Richard III," written about 1596.
THIS chapter is entitled " The Ruin of France " because it tells us
of the beginning of the great war which lasted for one hundred
years, and which brought ruin and desolation to France. Those who
lived at the time tell us of the misery which the French people went
through ; how their fields were laid waste, how their houses were burned
down, how thousands were killed in battle, and how many thousands
more died of the famine which followed the laying waste of the fields.
But though the story tells us of the ruin of France, it tells us also of
one very eood thing that happened to the French people during these
2io HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
long years of war and suffering. It often happens that out of evil there
comes good, and so it was in this case. For many years before the
reign of Edward III.,(21) the French people had fought amongst them-
selves, and the kingdom of France had been divided up into a number
of small divisions — kingdoms, duchies, and counties— each under a
separate king, or duke, or count.
In the case of Normandy, the duke had been not only an enemy to
the King of France, but was himself King of England. The dukes of
Burgundy and Berry were rivals of the King of France ; and though, at
the time of Edward II. 's death, Normandy no longer formed part of
the dominion of the English king, yet a great piece of the south of
France, called Guienne, was still claimed by the King of England.
The wise reign of Louis IX., whose death took place in 1270, when
Henry III. was King of England, had done much to strengthen and
unite France ; but much more had to be done before France became a
really united nation. It was only when the French people were obliged
to fight for their lives and their liberties against the foreign armies of
Edward III. (21) and Henry V.(36) of England, that they really began to
understand that all quarrels at home must be set aside until the foreign
enemies had been driven out of France. We shall see, when we come
to the reign of Henry VI, (41) how they did at last put aside all their
quarrels, and did succeed in turning the English out of France.
Now we must see how it came about that the French began to
learn this lesson in the reign of Edward III. The reign of Edward II.
was taken up, as we know, with the Scottish war. The English
barons had never forgiven the Scots for the defeat at Bannockburn,
and by the time Edward III. had come to the throne they were
ready and willing once more to march into Scotland. Robert Bruce
was dead (1329), and his son David had neither the courage nor the
wisdom of his father. Edward Balliol, son of John Balliol, who,
as we may remember, was king before Robert Bruce, made his way
into Scotland and attacked David Bruce. David fled and Balliol was
declared king.
But he did not long remain king. He was unwise enough to
promise to do homage to Edward III. The Scots could not forgive
him for this, and he in his turn was driven from the throne. All
these quarrels and misfortunes in Scotland had given a great advantage
to the English, and when Edward III. again crossed the border it
seemed as if he were going to repeat the victories of his grandfather,
Edward I. Indeed, there can be little doubt that if England had
only had to fight Scotland at this time, Scotland would soon have
lost all that it had won at Bannockburn.
THE BEGINNING OF THE GREAT WAR. 211
But fortune favoured Scotland. It was at this time that a quarrel
broke out between England and France, and Edward had to turn
his attention to a more dangerous enemy than David Bruce. Both
sides were ready to quarrel, and so it was not hard to find an excuse.
The King of France declared that the Scots were his allies, and
that he was bound to help them. King Edward replied that the
Scots were his enemies, and that if the French helped them, they
were his enemies too ; and what was more, he said that if right were
done, he himself ought to be King of France, and not Philip, who
then sat upon the French throne.
It matters little nowadays what were the rights or the wrongs of the
quarrel. Both sides were ready for the fight, and if one excuse had not
been enough, they would soon have found another.
Crecy.
"Lances in rest; Advance banners; Archers, bend your bows; cry,
' St. George for England ! ' "
The war began. French ships took English merchantmen in the
Channel. Edward sent out an English fleet, and for the first time
English sailors beat the French at sea. Then Edward crossed over to
France with an army of 30,000 men, and landed at La Hogue. He
intended to march into Flanders, where he hoped to find his allies,
but he was only able to advance with great difficulty, and he lost many
men from sickness or in battle.
At last he reached a little village called Crecy, which we shall see
marked on the map on page 234. Here he halted his army, hoping to
receive help from his allies. But the King ot France was close by with a
large army. At the head of no less than 120,000 men, he marched
rapidly from Abbeville towards Crecy. The English soldiers, who were
about 20,000 in number, were drawn up in order by the king. They
were in three divisions, one of which was in command of Edward,(ao
Prince of Wales (eldest son of the king), who was at this time only
sixteen years old.
It was the 26th of August, 1346. The king, mounted on a white
horse, rode through the ranks early in the morning, cheering up his
men, and telling them how great would be the glory if they gained the
victory over this great French army.
By this time the French were getting nearer. When they came
212
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
within a few miles of Crecy, Philip sent on an officer to find out
where the English army was, and how it was arranged. The officer
came back and said that the English were in good order, and had
had time to rest. It would be better, he thought, to wait a day and
let the French soldiers rest too. Philip commanded his army to
halt, but the French
soldiers, who believed
that they would easily
beat the small army
before them, pressed
on to the attack.
. The battle began
between the archers.
The French had with
them 15,000 Italian
soldiers from Genoa,
armed with cross-
bows. On the Eng-
lish side, the archers
were armed with the
long-bow. It is said
that just before the
battle, a great thun-
derstorm took place,
and that the bows of
the Genoese, who had
been marching as fast
as they could to get
to the field of battle,
got wetted with
the rain. When
they were thus
wetted, the strings
became slack, and the
bow would no longer
shoot as hard and as
straight as it did be-
fore. The English archers, on the other hand, had kept their long-bows
dry in their cases. After the storm was over, the bows were drawn
forth, and they shot as strong and as true as ever. It was soon
seen that on this day, at any rate, the long-bow was a better weapon
than the cross-bow.
ENGLISH ARCHER ARMED WITH THE "LONG BOW.'
A CHAPTER OF VICTORIES. 213
The English archers shot so fast that, as an Italian who wrote
an account of the battle says, " It seemed to snow." The Genoese
could bear it no longer ; they cut their bow-strings, threw away their
bows, and turned to fly. As they fled, they broke in amongst the
French horsemen, and all was confusion. Then the French cavalry
came under the storm of arrows, and many of them fell pierced even
through their armour. As they fell from their horses, the Cornish
men and Welshmen who were with King Edward stabbed them on
the ground. When the French king saw that his archers had given
way, he ordered his knights to charge, and a great battle took place
between the knights and men in armour on both sides.
In the middle of this fight was the Black Prince. He fought bravely,
and was in great danger of his life. So great was his danger, that the
Earl of Warwick sent a messenger to King Edward begging him for
help. " 7s my son dead ? " said the king. " Not so," replied the mes-
senger, " but he needs help" " Nay, then," said the king, " he has no aid
from me. Tell him that I know that he will bear him like a man, and show
himself worthy of his knighthood." The prince did indeed show himself
worthy of his knighthood, for at last he and those who were with him
succeeded in putting to flight the French and making victory certain.
King Philip himself rode full speed from the field of battle. It was
dark when he reached the castle of Broye. He blew with his horn at
the castle gate. The warder on the castle walls called out into the
darkness, " Who comes there on such a night?" "It is the Fortune of
France" said the king ; and almost alone, " Philip the Fortunate," for
so men had called him, escaped with bare life from the field of Crecy.
A Chapter of Victories.
" Telling me-
lt was great pity, so it was,
That villainous saltpetre should be digg'd
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd
So cowardly ; and, but for these vile guns,
He would himself haue been a soldier. "
Shakespeare : " King Henry IV.," Part I.
The story of the battle of Crecy has been told at some length for
several reasons. In the first place, Crecy was a very great and
214
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
memorable fight, of which Englishmen have a real right to be proud. The
French lost on that day two kings — the Kings of Majorca and Bohemia
— ii princes, 80 bannerets, 1,200 knights, and 30,000 men. In the
second place, the success which Edward won on the field of Crecy no
doubt encouraged him to go on with the cruel war which for a hundred
years made England and France bitter enemies.
And, lastly, there is one other thing which makes Crecy very memor-
able among the many battles of which history tells us. If we had been
upon the battle-field of Cr£cy we should have heard all the fierce and
terrible noises which are always to be heard upon a battle-field ; the
shouts of those who are fighting, the cries and groans of the wounded,
the trampling of the horses, and the clash of arms.
CANNON OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
But at Crecy we should have heard another sound, different from
all these other noises, a sound which was not heard at Hastings, at
Bannockburn, nor at any of the great battles which had already taken
place in the history of England. We should have heard a loud, deep
report, which came from neither man nor horse. It was not the sound
of charging cavalry, nor yet that of the clash of steel.
What was this sound ? It was the thunder of the Cannon, heard for
the first time in any battle in which English soldiers were engaged.
For the first time, at the battle of Crecy, the gunpowder which some
say Roger Bacon, an English monk, first showed English people the use
of, and which was certainly quite new to the world, was used in
cannon.
The cannons were small, weak affairs, made of wood, hooped with
iron. The balls which they threw were scarcely larger than a cricket-
ball, and no doubt the long-bow and the broad-sword killed many
hundreds more at the battle of Crecy than did the cannon.
But from that day onwards the power of gunpowder began to grow
greater than that of the long-bow and the broad-sword, until at last in
A CHAPTER OF VICTORIES.
215
our own day the arrow is forgotten, and the sword has become little
more than an ornament.
The great thing to remember about the use of gunpowder is not that
more people have been killed in battle since gunpowder was used — for
indeed, it is probable that quite as many men were killed in the old
battles as in the battles which are fought now — but that gunpowder
did this : it made the weak equal to the strong, and the small equal
to the great.
No amount of strength
will protect a man against a
rifle bullet or a cannon shot,
and a rifle will shoot quite
as hard if it be held by a
small and a weak man as
when it is held by a giant.
We shall see, as we read our
English history, how, from
the time of the battle of
Crecy, the knights in armour,
who had been masters of
all the world up to that
time, gradually lost their
power as their strength and
their armour ceased to pro-
tect them.
Crecy, however, was not
the only great victory which
was won by the English
during the reign of King
Edward III. In the year
1333 King Edward defeated
the Scottish army at Halidon
Hill. In 1340, seven years
later, an English fleet defeated a French fleet at Sluys, off the
coast of Flanders, or Belgium as we now call it. In 1347, after the
battle of Crecy, King Edward took the town of Calais, after a siege
which lasted twelve months ; and in 1356 a great victory was won by
the English over the French at Poitiers, in which John, King of France,
was taken prisoner. In 1360 peace was at last made with France at
Bretigny, but the terms of the peace were not kept to by either side,
and the war went on.
The reign of Edward III. was a very splendid one, if we think only
GUNPOWDER PUTS THE WEAK AND THE
STRONG ON EQUAL TERMS.
2l6
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
of the victories which were won by English armies under his command.
It is quite right to be proud of these victories, for they were won by our
forefathers against great odds, and every Englishman should be proud
that he belongs to the same race that won the victories of Crecy and
Poitiers. We, however, must not forget that the war was a cruel and
perhaps a useless one. A very large part of France was ruined and
laid waste, and England too was much weakened by the loss of men
and money. But while we regret the war, we can still admire the courage
and skill of King Edward and of his warlike son, the Black Prince.
King Edward III. was certainly one of the greatest of our kings.
The king died in the year 1377, in the fifty-first year of his reign.
CHAPTER XXVII.
RICHARD II.
1377—1399.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF RICHARD II.
Richard II, King of England, son of Edward
the Black Prince, and grandson of
Edward III., b. 1366, became King
77, deposed 1399, reigned 22 years.
Johemia, daughter of the Emperor
Char.es IV. of Germany, first wife of
Richard II., m. 1382, d. 1394.
Isabella, daugh'.er of Charles VI., King of
France, second wife of Richard II.,
m. 1396.
John Of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, Regent
of the Kingdom, son of Edward III.,
and uncle of King Richard, d. 1399.
Edmund of Langley, Duke of York, son of
Edward 111. and uncle of the King,
Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, son of
Edward III., and uncle of King
Richard, d. 1397.
Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, Richard's
Minister, d. 1389.
Henry Bolingbroke, son of John of Gaunt
and cousin of King Richard, after-
wards King of England, b. 1366.
Gregory XL, Pope, d. 1570.
Charles VI., King of France (called Bien-
aime', or "The Well-Beloved"),
1380-1-22.
John Wyclifie, an Oxford preacher, b. 1321,
d. 1384.
Wat Tyler, leader of Kentish insurgents,
killed 1381.
Sir William Walworth, Lord Mayor of
London, d. 1381.
TimOUr the Tartar, sometimes called
Tamerlane.
Geoffrey Chaucer, a great poet, b. 1328,
d. 1400.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF RICHARD
1377. Richard II. becomes King, June 22nd.
A Spanish force lands in the Isle of
Wight, and a Spanish and French
fleet sails up the Thames to Gravesend.
John Philpot, Alderman of London,
collects a fleet at his own cost, and
defeats the Spanish and French.
1380. War in France.
1381.
1382.
Wycliffe preaches against the priests.
Wat Tyler's rebellion.
Richard marries Anne of Bohemia.
Wycliffe condemned by the Pope.
1384-5 War in Scotland and in Ireland.
13 6. Michael de la Pole, Richard's Minister,
impeached.
1387. John of Gaunt makes himself Regent,
217
4388.
I3P4.
1396.
The " Wonderful " or " Merciless Par-
liament."
Battle of Otterburre, or "Chevy
Chase," between the English and
Scots.
Richard takes the government into his
own hands.
Death of Queen Anne.
Richard marries Isabella, daughter of
the King of France.
The King causes John of Gaunt to be
taken prisoner.
139!'
Quarrel between Bolincbroke and the
Duke of Norfolk. Richard banishes
them both.
Tamerlane, or Timour the Tartar, in-
vades India, captures Delhi, and puts
100,000 persons to death.
Bolingbroke returns and defeats the
King.
Death of John of Gaunt.
The King deposed, imprisoned at Pon-
tefract Castle, and (probably) mur-
dered.
Wat Tyler.
"And you, that love the Commons, follow me. —
Now show yourselves men : 'tis for liberty.
We will not leave one lord, one gentleman:
Spare none but such as go in clouted shoon,
For they are thrifty honest men, and such
As would (but that they dare not) take our parts."
" King Henry VI., Part II."
RICHARD II. t») came to the throne after the death of Edward III. He
was the grandson of Edward III. and son of Edward the Black Prince,
who died before his father.
King Richard was an unfortunate and an unwise king, and his life
ended in misery and disgrace. There is not room here to tell the
story of his reign at great length, but there were one or two very
important things that happened in it which cannot be left out.
Richard was only eleven years old when he came to the throne. The
most powerful man in the country was the king's uncle, John of
Gaunt, (-5) Duke of Lancaster, the fourth son of King Edward III. The
king had two other uncles, The Duke of York,(-7) and The Duke of
Gloucester. (28) The three brothers, John of Gaunt, Edmund of York,
and Thomas of Gloucester, played a great part in the story of Richard's
reign.
One of the most remarkable events which took place in the reign of
Richard II. was the rebellion which was got up by Wat Tyler (1381).
We shall remember that during the reign of Edward III. there had
been much fighting between England and France, and between
England and Scotland. These long wars had cost much money,
and heavy taxes had to be raised to pay for them. The people
were poor, and they found these taxes very burdensome. One
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
tax in particular was most unpopular. This was the Poll Tax,
which was a tax of twelve pence upon every head or " poll " in the
country ; that is to say, it had to be paid by every person over fifteen
years of age. Twelve
pence does not seem very
much nowadays, but in
the time of Richard II.
twelve pence was worth
as much as eighteen
shillings in our time. The
collection of the Poll Tax
gave rise to great discon-
tent, and at last led to
open rebellion.
One day the tax-col-
lector came to the house
of a man named Walter
the Tiler, or " Wat Tyler "
as he was called, who
lived in the town of Dart-
ford in Kent. He asked
Wat Tyler to pay a heavy
tax, and at the same time
added to Wat's anger by
insulting his daughter. In
a fury Wat knocked the
man down and killed
him. The- townspeople
approved the deed, and
soon the news of it spread
far and wide, and all those
who were discontented
praised the Tiler of Dart-
ford for what he had
done. Soon, from all
the southern and eastern
counties of England the people began to gather together, and at last in
a great body, 60,000 strong, they set off to march to London. Wat Tyler
was put at the head of the people's army, and he led them to Black-
heath, which is close to London. By this time there were no less than
100,000 men gathered together. The king and his court, and all the
wealthy people of London, were greatly alarmed, especially when they
RICHARD II.
(From the portrait in Westminster Abbey.}
WAT TYLER. 219
heard that Wat Tyler and his friends had declared that they would
upset the Government, take all they wanted from the rich, and divide
what they took among the poor.
Although the followers of Wat Tyler had much to complain of,
and they did some violent things, they were not all robbers and
plunderers, as the people of London thought they were ; many of them
were honest men who really wanted to get right done to them, and
they believed that the king was on their side and would help them.
They asked for four things: i. That they should no longer be made
slaves to any man, nor be compelled to give their work without
payment. 2. That the rent of the land they lived upon should be
paid in money, and that they should no longer be compelled, as they
often were, to do work as payment for their rent. They frequently found
that the work which they were made to do was really worth much more
than the rent which they owed. 3. That they should be free to buy and
sell where they liked, and to take their goods freely to market. 4. That
none of them should be punished for what they had done since the rebellion
began.
The king met the people, and gladly promised to grant these things
if they would go home. Most of them were content with the promise,
and many went home ; but Wat Tyler and Jack Straw, another leader,
and some of the worst men among them, would not go home. They
marched to London ; they got possession of the Tower of London ;
they threatened the king's mother.
Richard himself rode out to meet them. He found them in front of
St. Bartholomew's Church in Smithfield. There were 20,000 men, and
Wat Tyler was at the head of them. Wat Tyler went up to the king,
bidding his followers stay till he gave them a sign ; they were then to
come forward and kill all but the king. " He is young" said Wat Tyler ;
" we can do with him as we please ; we will lead him with us all about
England, and so shall we be lords of the kingdom without doubt"
As Wat Tyler was speaking to the king, there came up Sir William
Walworth, Mayor of London, with twelve horsemen. He was angry
with Wat Tyler, and he cried out, " Ha I thou knave ; darest thou speak
such words in the king's presence ? " Tyler made a sharp answer, and
Walworth at once killed him with his sword. At first it seemed as if
the crowd would avenge the death of their leader. " They have killed
our captain" they cried, and they bent their bows. Then Richard
with great courage and readiness rode forward, saying, " Sirs, what
aileth you ? I will be your leader and captain. Follow me, for I am your
king." The people, pleased with Richard's courage, did what he bade
them, and soon dispersed again to their own homes. And thus came
22 o HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
to an end what seemed at one time to be a very dangerous rebellion.
As to the promises which the king had made, some were fulfilled ;
but most of them, unfortunately, were broken and forgotten.
The end of Richard's reign was less happy than the beginning.
He was a mere child when he came to the throne, and during his
early years he had submitted to be ruled by his uncle, John, Duke
of Lancaster, commonly known as John of Gaunt. (-5) But after Wat
Tyler's rebellion had been put down, Richard, who had reached the
age of manhood, determined to take the reins of government in
his own hands. He found little difficulty in carrying out his resolves,
for John of Gaunt, while governing in the king's name, had made
himself unpopular in the country. The king appointed new ministers
chosen from among his own friends. The chief of the new ministers
was Michael de la Pole, who received the title of Earl of Suffolk. Richard
further strengthened his own position by his marriage with Anne
of Bohemia, daughter of the emperor. John of Gaunt, deprived of
Richard's favour, was compelled to take refuge in flight, and the
king seemed for the time to be master of the situation. But the
departure of the Duke of Lancaster had really only left the field
open to his brother Thomas, Duke of Gloucester. '-8) Thomas, who it will be
remembered was the youngest son of King Edward III/-1) was greatly
offended at the king's choosing De la Pole as his minister. De la Pole
had been a merchant and did not belong to one of the great families
of the nobles, and Thomas was easily able to persuade his friends
among the nobility that their rights and their power were likely to
be endangered if such persons as the Earl of Suffolk were allowed
to hold the highest offices in the kingdom.
The Banishment of Boling-broke.
"Herald.— Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
Stands here for God, his soueteign, and himself,
On pain to be found false and recreant,
To proue the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray,
A traitor to his God, his king, and him ;
And dares him to set forward to the fight. "
Shakespeare : " King Richard II."
It was not long before a party was formed among the nobles.
At the head of it was Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, and its leaders were
THE BANISHMENT OF BOLINGBROKE. 221
the Earls of Warwick, Arundel, and Nottingham, and Henry of Boling-
broke, (3:;) son of John of Gaunt. The first step taken by the new
party was to " appeal " the king's ministers of treason,1 and hence
they came to be called " Lords Appellant." They took up arms to
enforce their claims, seized the king, and called together a Parliament,
the members of which they knew would be favourable to their cause.
The Earl of Suffolk fled from the country, several of the ministers
were put to death, and the king was compelled for a time to bow
to the storm which he could not resist. It was not long, however,
before he found an opportunity of avenging the insult which had
been put upon him. In the year 1387 he reached the age of twenty-
one, and he soon showed that he was determined to prove to all
the world that he had come of age and could act for himself.
One day as he sat in his great Council he turned to his uncle
the Duke of Gloucester, with these words, " How old do you think
I am?" " Your Highness" replied the duke, "you are in your twenty-
second year" " Then" said the king, " / surely am old enough to
manage my own concerns, 'I have been longer under the control of guardians
than any ward2 in my dominions. I thank you, my Lords, for your
past services, but I require them no longer."
Richard was not long in giving effect to his words. The Duke
of Gloucester and the other Lords Appellant were dismissed from
their offices, and a king once more chose his own ministers from among
his own friends.
Queen Anne had died in the year 1394, and Richard now further
strengthened his position by a marriage with Isabella, daughter of
King Charles VI. of France (1396). The marriage was not popular
among the English people, but it proved an advantage to the king
because it insured, for the time at any rate, peace with France and
left the King free to deal with his enemies at home.
For a time Richard seemed content with the victory he had
won, but in reality he was only waiting until he should be strong
enough to punish the man who had so grievously offended him. He
was content to wait ten years until his opportunity came ; but
in the year 1397 he struck the blow he had so long intended.
Gloucester, Arundel, and Warwick were charged with plotting a
new rebellion. Arundel was beheaded, Gloucester was thrown into
prison and murdered while there, Warwick was banished. For a
time it seemed as if Bolingbroke and Nottingham would escape.
The king even showed them special favour, and made the one Duke of
1 To charge them with being guilty of high treason.
2 Ward, or minor, a person under twenty-one.
222 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Hereford, and the other Duke of Norfolk. But he had not forgotten
his grudge, and he skilfully contrived a quarrel between the two
dukes. It was decided that after the custom of the times the quarrel
should be settled by a fight between the two parties, and arrangements
were made for a tournament to be held in the presence of the king
at which the Dukes of Hereford and Norfolk were to meet in single
combat. At the last moment, however, and just as the two com-
batants had entered the lists, the king threw down his staff between
them, and ordered the heralds to stop the fight. This done, he
sentenced Norfolk to banishment for life, and Hereford to banishment
for ten years.
It seemed at length as if the king had freed himself from all his
enemies, but, as events showed, this was far from being the case. The
Duke of Gloucester and the Earl of Arundel were dead, and " dead
men tell no tales " and do no mischief, but Bolingbroke, though banished
from the country, was still alive and eager to regain the power he had
lost, and the estates from which his father, John of Gaunt, and he had
been driven.
Before long a favourable opportunity arose. In the year 1399
Richard started at the head of an expedition to Ireland. English rule
in that country was threatened by an armed rebellion, and the king
determined to go over himself to restore order. But in those days a
voyage to Ireland was often a matter of many days, and the king, once
on the other side of the Irish Channel, soon lost his power over the
government in London. His enemies at once saw that the time had
come when they might safely return and claim their own again.
While Richard was still in Ireland, Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of
Hereford, landed at Eavenspur in Yorkshire. At first he declared that
he sought nothing but the restoration of his father's estates, but success
soon taught him to claim a still greater prize. He was joined by the
Earl of Northumberland, and by his son Henry Percy, known on account
of his hasty and impetuous character as " Harry Hotspur." He soon
was surrounded by a considerable army. The news of this fresh rebel-
lion reached Richard in Ireland and he hastened to return. But the
wind was contrary, and many days passed before he was able to set up
his standard in England. It was then too late, and his enemies were
too powerful to be resisted.
Despairing of succesf, he gave himself up to the Earl of North-
umberland, and shortly after, yielding to the threats of his enemies,
he consented to abdicate the crown in the hope of saving his own
life. Parliament was persuaded to declare that the claim of Henry
Bolingbroke to the crown of England was a good one, and to proclaim
GEOFFREY CHAUCER. 223
him King. Richard was confined a close prisoner in Pontefract Castle,
and there, he was murdered. For a long time after his death many
people believed that he was still alive, and that he would one day
return and take the crown. Nor were all doubts removed when the
new king, anxious to prove to all men that his rival was no longer to
be feared, caused the body of Richard to be brought up from Pontefract
and publicly exhibited to the people of London. There were still some
who said that the body was not that of the king, but of some person
who resembled him. But as time passed on, the fact of Richard's
death ceased to be disputed, and there can indeed be no doubt that
he was put to death shortly after his imprisonment in Pontefract
Castle. He ceased to reign in the twenty-third year after his accession
to the crown.
Geoffrey Chaucer.
" Dan Chaucer, well of English undefyled,
On Fame's eternal bead roll Worthie to be fyled."
Spenser: " Faerie Queene"
There are three things that we must bear in mind when we read
of the reign of Richard II., for they are all of great importance in
English history.
About the year 1328, fifty years before Richard came to the throne,
there was born Geoffrey Chaucer, the first great English poet. The
name of Chaucer will always be remembered, for two reasons. First,
he was a real and great poet, whose best known poem — " The Canter-
bury Tales " — is still read with pleasure by thousands of Englishmen.
In the poem we read how a number of travellers met on their way
to the tomb of Thomas A' Becket at Canterbury. They met at an inn,
and as they ride along the road together they tell each other stories,
and give an account of their adventures. There are a Sailor, a Farmer, a
Priest, the Landlord of the inn, a Soldier or Knight, a Student, and many
others. Their stories are very amusing, and they are also very interest-
ing, because we learn from them just how people lived, what they
thought and talked about, how they dressed, how they made their
money, and how they spent their money five hundred years ago. We
can learn a great deal more history from the stories in Chaucer's " Can-
terbury Tales " than we can from many history books. We see that there
is every reason for remembering Chaucer, because he was a great poet.
The other reason for which he must be remembered is that he
224 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
was really the first great writer who wrote English in the way in
which we now speak it. Before his time there were a great many
people, chiefly the rich, the barons, and the courtiers, who talked
French, or a language very like French. The poorer people, and most
of the merchants and tradesmen, who were of Saxon families, talked
English, but English very different from what we speak now, and
when they wrote, they wrote in Anglo--Saxon, which we should find it
very difficult to understand at the present time.
But gradually those who spoke French, and those who spoke Anglo-
Saxon, got mixed up together, and as they got mixed up, the language
they spoke also got mixed, and soon a new language came to be used,
which was neither French nor Anglo-Saxon, but which was made up of
both. This language was really the English Language which we talk now,
and in which there are very many Norman and French words, and
a still greater number of Saxon words.
This new language was spoken before Chaucer's time, but he was
the first person to write it down in the form of poetry. When it was
once written down, other people followed the example, and wrote in the
same way, and thus began the writing of all those tens of thousands of
English books which have been written and read in England since the
time of Chaucer.
The Black Death— John Wycliffe.
'Ms thou these ashes, little brook! wilt bear
Into the Avon, Avon to the tide
Of Severn, Severn to the narrow seas,
Into main ocean they, this deed accurst
An emblem yields to friends and enemies
How the bold teacher's doctrine, sanctified
By truths shall spread throughout the world dispersed."
Wordsworth : " To Wycliffe."
We said that there were three special things to be remembered
about the reign of Richard II. One is the life and writings of Geoffrey
Chaucer, the second is the " Black Death." The Black Death was a
terrible sickness which spread over England and Ireland between the
years 1348 and 1407. Thousands of people died of it in a very short
time. It is said that over a million persons died of this terrible disease
in England alone.
The third thing to be remembered is the life and death of John Wycliffe.
JOHN WYCLIFFE. 225
John Wycliffe was born in Yorkshire in the year 1324. He was a great
preacher and teacher of the people. Many of the priests at that time
were bad and ignorant, and he preached against them, saying that men
should live better lives, and that many of the things which the priests
taught were untrue.
He had many followers, who were known as " Lollards.'" The
great work for which Wycliffe is known is his translation of the Bible
into English. This Bible was not the same as that which we use now,
and very few copies of it were made, for in the time of Wycliffe nobody
in England knew how to print books. But we must not forget that
Wycliffe was the first English translator of the Bible. Wycliffe died in
1384, and was buried at Lutterworth, in Leicestershire.
After his death his bones were dug up and burnt by order of the Pope,
and his ashes were thrown into the little river " Swift " which runs past
Lutterworth. But though Wycliffe was dead, and his bones burnt, the
work he had done was not forgotten.
His ashes were thrown into the Swift, the Swift bore them into the
Avon, the Avon to the Severn, the Severn to the Sea, and the Sea to the
Wide World ; so has his name been carried down in English history,
till it has become one which all readers ol' English history through-
out the world now know and are proud of.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
HENRY IV.
1399-1413.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF HENRY IV.
Henry IV., son of John of Gaunt and Blanche Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, great-
of Lancaster, and grandson of Edward j grandson of Lionel, Duke of Clarence,
III., b. 1366, became king 1399, d. ! third son of Edward III., and the
1413, reigned 14 years.
Mary Bohun, first wife of Henry IV., m.
1381, d. 1394.
Henry, son of Henry IV., afterwards King
of England, b. 1388.
Thomas, Duke of Clarence, son of Henry
true heir to the throne on the death
of Richard, b. 1392.
Archibald DOUglas, leader of the Scottish
army.
The Earl of Northumberland, father of
Harry Hotspur, d. 1408.
, Hairy Hotspur, son of ihe Earl of Northum-
John, Duke of Bedford, son of Henry I V. berland, d. 1403.
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and two j Robert III., King of Scotland, d. 1406.
daughters.
Joanna, daughter of Charles, King of Navarre,
second wife of Henry IV., m. 1403, d.
Owen GlendOWer, leader of the Wcl*h insur-
rection, d. 1415.
I
James Stuart (James I. of Scotland), son
of Robert.
Charles VI. (Tl.e Well- Beloved), King of
France.
Sir William Gascoigne, Chief Justice of
the King's Bench.
226
HISTORY OF ENGLAND,
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY IV.
September 3oth, Henry crowned King. ! 1403.
Henry sets aside the claim of the Earl
of March, the true heir to the throne.
Insurrection by the friends of King
Richard II. 1408.
King Richard II. said by some to have
been murdered at Pontefract Castle
in this year.
Expedition into Scotland. 1403.
Insurrection of Owen Glendower in 1411.
Wales.
Harry Percy (Hotspur) destroys the
Scottish army, under Archibald 1413.
Douglas, at Homildon Hill.
Alliance of Percy and Douglas in sup-
port of the cause of the E irl of March.
Hotspur joins Owen Glendower.
Henry defeats the rebels at Shrewsbuty.
The Earl of Northumberland and Owen
Glendower in revolt against the King
are defeated at Bramham Moor, iu
Yorkshire.
Final defeat of Owen Glendower.
Henry joins in the quarrel between the
King of France and the Duke of
Burgundy.
Death of Henry IV.
A Troubled Reign.
" Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. "
Shakespeare : " Henry IV.t" Part II.
THE reign of Henry IV. is an interesting and important one, and for
several reasons. In the first place it must be remembered that Henry
was not the true heir to the throne, and that he had by force dethroned
and imprisoned Richard, the rightful king, and indeed after Richard's
death it was not Henry but the descendants of Lionel, Duke of Clarence,(-3)
who, by the law and custom of England, ought to have succeeded to the
crown. One of these descendants was living. His name was Edmund
Mortimer,(35a' Earl of March, who was the great -grand son of Lionel, Duke
of Clarence. Henry knew well that his own claim was not a good one,
and it was for this reason that he made haste to call together a Parlia-
ment, and to get from it a declaration that he was the true heir.
Parliament could not indeed alter the fact, but it could do much to
strengthen the hands of the new king by giving him its support.
But Parliament did not give its support for nothing. Over and over
again during King Henry's reign Parliament made demands upon the
king, which he granted because he knew that his power depended not
upon his own good title, but upon the support of Parliament. He thus
did many things which he would certainly never have done had he felt
himself quite firm upon his throne, and Parliament gained more power
during his reign than it had possessed for many years past.
The reign of Henry IV. is interesting for another reason. As we
have just read, he was not the true heir to the crown, and he lived in
constant fear of losing in war what he had won by war. By his skill
and bravery he gained a victory over his various enemies at home, and
was able to hand on the crown to his son. But he was never free from
A TROUBLED REIGN.
227
the fear of civil war, and we shall see that in the end this fear of war at
home led his son to begin a war abroad which he thought would turn
people's minds away from the questions which had led to so much
quarrelling at home. There seems little doubt that the long war
with France, which began in the reign of Henry's son, was in a
HENRY IV.
great part owing to the uncertain title by which King Henry held
his crown.
It was indeed not long before civil war broke out again in
England, and Henry, who had attacked and defeated Richard the
lawful king, now found himself attacked in turn in more than one
quarter. Within a few months of his coronation a rising took place on
228 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
behalf of King Richard, but Henry easily put it down, and the Earls of
Kent and Huntingdon, who were the rebel leaders, were taken and
executed.
The next rebellion was a more serious one. It began in Wales,
where a Welsh gentleman named Owen Glendower, a former follower
of King Richard, put himself at the head of an army, and declared
himself Prince of Wales and crossed the English border. With the
Welsh alone it would not have been difficult to deal, although Glen-
dower proved himself a formidable leader, and the skill with which
he escaped pursuit earned for him among the English soldiers the
name of " The Magician." But matters became much more serious
when the Scots, in their turn, rose on behalf of King Richard who, they
declared, was still alive. Luckily the English Parliament was still in
a good humour with the king, and sufficient money was found to put
an army into the field. An English force under the Earl of North-
umberland, and his son Harry Percy, or "Hotspur" met the Scots and
totally defeated them at the battle of Homildon Hill in Northumber-
land (1402), and the famous Earl of Douglas was taken a prisoner
by Hotspur.
But out of- the victory grew, yet another trouble for the king. Henry
ordered Hotspur to hand over his prisoner Douglas to him, but this
Hotspur refused to do, and the quarrel between the king and the great
house of Northumberland soon became so bitter that at last the Percies,
with their prisoner Douglas, openly joined a party of rebels, and
made common cause with Owen Glendower and with Edmund
Mortimer, uncle of the Earl of March, who had now become an ally
of the Welsh leader, and had given him his daughter in marriage.
With all these enemies arrayed against it, the royal cause seemed
to be in great danger. Fortunately for Henry, his enemies were
divided in their councils, and had not really all the same end in
view. Fortunately, also, the people of England were not very eager
to support the party which had among its leaders a Welsh chief and
a Scottish earl both long known as bitter enemies of England, and
which received help from France, sent by Queen Isabella, the widow
of Richard II.
The king advanced against the rebels, who at once declared Edmund
Mortimer,1 the young Earl of March, to be the true king, and prepared
1 Edmund Mortimer/S5a' the young Earl of March, was at this time only a boy of eleven
years of age. If we look at the table on page 266, we shall see that he was the true heir to the
crown, his father, Roger Mortimer, having been killed in the year 1398. His title came to him
through Philippa, the daughter of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, who, as we have seen, was the third
son of Ed ward III. His title was clearly a better "ne than that of the des-endams of John of
Gaunt, or of Edmund, Duke of York.
A TROUBLED REIGN. 229
to maintain their cause in battle. Like a good general, Henry managed
to meet his enemies before they could unite their forces. He attacked
the army of the Percies at Shrewsbury (1403) before Glendower with his
Welsh troops could come up. The battle ended in the entire defeat
of the rebel army. Hotspur was killed and Douglas was taken
prisoner. The loss on both sides was very great, and included very
many gentlemen of name.
But even after this success the troubles of King Henry were by no
means over. The Earl of Northumberland was pardoned, but both
the Scots and the Welsh remained in arms ; and the French, taking
full advantage of the disturbed state of England, made fierce attacks
upon the coast. Jersey and Guernsey were taken by them. A French
expedition landed in Plymouth Sound and burnt the town of Plymouth.
Another expedition landed in the Isle of Wight. The English in their turn
sent out ships to attack the French coast, and there was fierce fighting
all down the Channel. The Scots were still threatening, but the danger
from that quarter was diminished by the capture of James, the heir to
the crown of Scotland. The young prince was on his way to France
when the ship which bore him stopped off Flamborough Head. He
was taken from the ship, made prisoner (1405) by order of King Henry
and brought to London, where he was kept till the end of Henry's reign.
From this time forward the dangers which threatened the king
grew less. Not that the civil war was by any means over. Northumber-
land, though he had been pardoned and received into favour, had by
no means forgotten his old quarrel. He escaped to Wales from
Scotland, and shortly afterwards reappeared in the north of England
at the head of an army. He was, however, met by the royal troops
and defeated at Bramham Moor, near Arthington, in Yorkshire (1408),
and was killed in the battle. The French continued to attack Eng-
land, and a French fleet, sailing into Milford Haven, brought aid
to the Welsh under Glendower. For a time this strange alliance
between Welshmen and Frenchmen baffled the royal troops, but not
for long. The command of the army in Wales was given to the king's
eldest son, young Henry of Monmouth,(36) who showed, in the war that
followed, the bravery and some of the military skill which afterwards
made him famous as a victor in the great battle of Agincourt.
In the year 1409 the struggle ended, the Welsh were defeated, and the
country compelled to submit to the English rule. The French were no
longer able to do mischief, for France itself was distracted by civil war
and had no time for interfering with the affairs of other countries. It
seemed as if at last Henry had obtained rest and peace, but the rest
he had so hardly won he was not able to enjoy. He was attacked by
23° If j STORY OF ENGLAND.
the terrible disease of leprosy, and the last few years of his life were
passed as a bedridden cripple. On the aoth of March, 1413, he died
in a fit, in the Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster Abbey.
The story of his last moments is told in Shakespeare's play of
Henry IV., Act iv., Scene 5, of the Second Part, which contains the
famous scene of young Harry of Monmouth sitting by his father's
bedside under the belief that the life of the old king had passed away,
and placing on his own head the golden crown. But the king still
lived, and with returning consciousness saw the act of his son, and
rebuked him in the words which, as Shakespeare records them, are so
dignified and touching.
The prince, starting at finding that his father is still alive, says —
" I never thought to hear you speak again."
Then the king answers him thus —
" Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought ;
I stay too long by thee, I weary thee.
Dost thou so hunger for mine empty chair,
That thou wilt needs invest thee with mine honours
Before thy hour be ripe ? O foolish youth !
Thou seek'st the greatness that will overwhelm thee."
Whether or not this strange scene really took place is not certain.
It is doubtful, too, whether the story be true, which represents Henry
of Monmouth, before he came to the throne, as a wild young man,
keeping bad company and following lawless courses; it is certain,
however, that the crown which Henry IV. had won by force, and had
fought so hard to keep, passed on to his son without difficulty, and
with the full agreement of the people of England.
Henry IV. was twice married. His first wife was Mary Bohun,
daughter of the Earl of Hereford. She died in 1394. Nine years later,
in 1403, Henry married Joanna, daughter of Charles, King of Navarre,
who survived her husband.
One very evil thing in the reign of Henry IV. must be remembered.
It was in his day that persecution for religion received special en-
couragement from the law. The teaching of Wycliffe had borne fruit,
and there was a large party in the country who refused to believe all
that was told them by the priests. They believed that the Church
had become corrupt, and that great changes were needed. Those who
held these views were known as Lollards.1 They soon aroused the
enmity of the bishops, who gave them their name, and, who declaring
1 Lollards, from the Dutch 'ol'ard, a mumbler of prayers.
THE BURNING OF HERETICS. 2$t
that they were " tares " in the wheatfield, and must he rooted out, set
to work to persecute them. At the request of the bishops, Parliament
passed an Act ' punishing the heretics, as the Lollards were called,
with the penalty of death.
CHAPTER XXIX
HENRY V,
1413-1422.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF HENRY V.
Henry V., eldest son of Henry IV. and
Mary Bohun, King tf England, b.
1388 at Mot.mouth, and therefore
sometimes called Henry of Monmouth,
became king 1413, d. 1422, icigned
9 years.
Catherine, daughter of Charles VI., King of
France, wife of Henry V., m. 1420,
afterwards wife of Owen Tudor, m.
1423-
Henry, Jon of Henry V. and Catherine,
afterwards King of England, b. 1421.
Charles VI., Kin? of France, d. 1422.
Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, an
a'ly of the English.
The Duke Of Bedford, brother to King
Henry.
Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March,
Sreat grandson of Lionel, third son of
dward III., and the true heir to the
throne, d. 1424.
The Earl Of Suffolk, killed at Agincourt
I4J5-
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY V.
1413. Henry V. crowned king.
1414. H«*nry lays claim to the crown of
France.
Parliament votes money for a war with
France.
1415. Henry land-; in France. The Duke of
of Bedford made Regent of England.
Sept. 22. Henry takes Harfleur.
Oct. 25 (St. Crispin's Day), battle of
Agincourt.
John Huss, the great Bohemian Re-
former, burnt at Prague.
1416. An English fleet under the Duke of
Bedford defeats the French fleet off
Harfleur.
1417. Second expedition of Henry into
France.
1418 Siege of Rouen.
7419. Capture of Kcuen.
The French make friends with the
Burgundians, their former enemies,
and join them against the English.
1420. Henry marries Catherine of France.
Peace with France.
1421. Henry and Catherine return to England.
The French with the aid of ,'cottish
mercenaries, defeat an English army
at Beauge.
Henry's third expedition into Fran-re.
Successful campaign in France.
Birth of Henry VI. of England.
1422. Death of Henry at Vincennes, in
France.
1 De Heretico Comburendo, or " Concerning the Burning of Heretics." From that d*v
forward, and for many years, the wicked and cruel practice of burning men to death on
account of their religious opinions was practised in England.
232 HISTORY OF ENGLAND
Agincourt.
"Upon St. Crispin's day
Fought was this noble fray,
V/hich Fame did not delay
To England to carry ;
0 when shall English men,
With such acts fill a pen,
Or England breed again
Such a King Harry ? "
Michael Drayton (1563-1631) : "Ballad of Agincourt.
HENRY V. stands out as an heroic figure in the history of England.
During his lifetime he won the praise which is always accorded to the
young, the successful, and the brave. His brilliant victory over the
French made him a popular hero in his lifetime, and the misfortunes
which overtook England after his death, under the feeble rule of his
son, made men look back with regret to the "brave days of King
Harry," and contrast the splendour of his rule with the humiliation
and disaster of their own time. There was much in Henry's character
to justify the admiration of his people. He was brave, open, and
straightforward, and, above all, successful in war, but there can be
little doubt that the country paid a great price for the glory which he
won. In the fifteenth century England was a small and poor country
compared with France, and the opportunity which enabled Henry
to take advantage of.the divisions among Frenchmen, and to make
himself master for a time of half the kingdom of France, left England
drained of men and money, and utterly unable to retain the prize
which her soldiers had won.
But that Henry was popular, and indeed beloved, during his
lifetime can scarcely be doubted, and he had no sooner ascended the
throne than he gave ample proof of his desire to reign justly, and
to put an end to those internal quarrels which during his father's
lifetime had divided the kingdom. A story is told of Henry when
he was still a young man, before he became king, which deserves
to be remembered. It is said that one of the prince's gay companions
was one day arrested for some brawl, and brought before Gascoigne,
the Lord Chief Justice. The young prince, angry at his friend's
capture, and believing that, as a son of the king and heir to the throne,
he would be able to terrify the Chief Justice, appeared in the court,
AGINCOURT. 233
and, with threatening words, laid his hand upon his sword, and
ordered the judge to release the prisoner.
But Gascoigne remembered that the law is no respecter of
persons. So far from releasing the prisoner, he gave orders that
Henry himself should be sent to gaol for daring to insult one of
the king's judges. To prison, therefore, the prince went, according
to the story, and to his credit it is said that, instead of blaming
the act of the judge, he recognised the courage and wisdom which
Gascoigne had shown. When King Henry IV. was told of what
had happened, he said, " Happy is the king who possesses a judge
so resolute in the discharge of his duty, and a son so willing to yield to
the authority of the law."
One of the first acts of the new king on ascending the throne
was to send for the Chief Justice, to assure him that he bore no
ill-will towards him and to receive him into his favour0
Nor was this the only proof that he gave of his respect for the law.
Unluckily, he extended his favour equally to bad as well as to good
laws. We have seen how in the two previous reigns a sect known
as the " Lollards " had grown up, and how the teaching of Wycliffe
had fixed itself in the minds of many men. The archbishops and
bishops fearing lest the teaching of the Lollards should diminish
the power of the Pope and draw people away from the Church, had
persuaded Henry IV. and his Parliament to pass a savage law by
which " heretics " might be burned to death for their opinions. It
was not long before Henry V. was persuaded in his turn to attack
the Loflards, who soon found themselves the object of terrible
persecutions. Sir John Oldcastle, afterwards known as Lord Cobham,
was a man of distinction and a personal friend of the king's, but
he was a Lollard, and had not hesitated to attack the Pope and
the clergy, and to declare himself a follower of Wycliffe. He was
tried and condemned, and imprisoned in the Tower, whence he
managed to escape, but was at length recaptured, and was put to
death, with many of his followers (1417).
There were, however, greater difficulties to be encountered at home
than the enmity of the Lollards, and Henry well knew that the only
way of escaping from the endless civil wars which had distracted the
kingdom during his father's reign was to turn the thoughts and the
weapons of Englishmen against a foreign enemy. From the outset
he had determined upon a war with France. It was not hard to
find a pretext, and whether the pretext were a good one or a bad
one mattered little. As the heir to Edward III. he boldly claimed
the crown of France. The French at that time, divided by internal
j*
234
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
quariels, 3ought to avoid war, and offered him the hand of a French
princess, the French province of Aquitaine, and a large sum of money
in satisfaction of his claim.
But Henry would have all or none. He refused the offer and
declared war. Parliament was summoned and voted money, and the
OF HENRY
Church, grateful for Henry's punishment of the Lollards, gave large
sums towards the war. Whatever may be thought of the cause
of the quarrel or of the consequences of the war, there can be no
doubt that the campaign which now took place was one of which
Englishmen may well be proud. An English army under an English
king successfully invaded the kingdom of France, and though ill
supplied, moving in an enemy's country, and confronted by great odds,
achieved a victory which startled all Europe.
AGINCOURT. 235
It was on the 25th October, I4I5,1 that the two armies met in the
battle which decided the campaign. The English army, exhausted with
constant marching, ill-fed, and reduced in numbers, came upon the
enemy close to the castle of Agincourt. The records of what took place
upon that day are clear and certain, and they tell us of a victory more
complete and more surprising than any which had ever been won by
an English army over a civilised enemy. The two armies were most
unequal in numbers. The French had 50,000, the English 15,000;
and yet, rather than have cowards or unwilling men in his ranks,
Henry bade all those who feared to risk their lives to go home before
the fight began. The French loss amounted to 10,000 killed and
14,000 prisoners, that of the English to 1,500.
Some of the finest lines in Shakespeare are about King Henry and
the battle o£ Agincourt.
The poet tells us how, the morning before the battle, the Earl of
Westmoreland, seeing how small the English army was, exclaimed— -
" ' O ! that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England,
That do no work to-day ! '"
Then King Henry replies —
' What's he, that wishes so ?
My cousin Westmoreland ? — No, my fair cousin :
If we are marked to die, we are enough
To do our country loss ; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will ! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold ;
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost ;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires :
But, if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, 'faith, my coz, wish not a man from England :
God's peace ! I would not lose so great an honour,
As one man more, methinks, would share from me,
For the best hope I have. O ! do not wish one more !
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he that hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart ; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse :
We would not die in that man's company,
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
St. Crispin's Day, '
2 3 6 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
This day is call'd the feast of Crispiai: :
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home
Will stand a-tip-toe when this day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his friends,
And say, ' To-morrow is St. Crispian ' ;
Then will he strip his sleeve and shew h-3 scars,
And say, ' These wounds I had on Crispian's day.
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in their mouths as household words, —
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloster, —
Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered :
This story shall the good man teach his son,
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered :
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers-
For' he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother ; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition ;
And gentlemen in England, now a-bed,
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap, while any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."
In the city of Oxford there stands the famous College of All Souls
and in the chapel of the college there is a lofty screen covered with life-
sized statues. The college and the chapel alike are memorials of the
battle of Agincourt. It was in memory of those who fell on that
famous field that the chapel was built, in order that perpetual prayers
might be made, after the fashion of that time, for the souls of those
who had fallen fighting for England. The stone figures which were put
up in the time of Henry V. have been broken and destroyed, but in
later days new statues have been erected in their places, and to this
day the chapel of All Souls' College, Oxford, remains to commemorate
the victory won on St. Crispin's day so many centuries ago.
A second campaign still further strengthened Henry's hold upon
France. Normandy was taken, and in 1420 Henry married Catherine,
daughter of the King of France, receiving a promise at the same time
that he should succeed to the throne of France on the death of
Charles VI. But a great nation like the French can never be long kept
down under foreign conquerors, however powerful and however able.
AciNCOVRT.
237
No sooner had Henry returned to England than the war broke out
again, and a third expedition had to be undertaken. To the last the
king's good fortune stood him in good stead, and once more victory
attended his arms ; but the strain and exposure of his warlike life told
upon the king's health. He fell sick, and on the 3ist August, 1422, he
died at the castle of Vincennes, close to Paris.
From the day of his death the English power in France, which his
genius had maintained, steadily declined. The great kingdom which
he had claimed and won melted away in the feeble grasp of his suc-
cessor, till nothing remained to bear witness to his splendid military
genius save the suffering of a wasted land, and the poverty of an
exhausted people. Englishmen had yet to learn the lesson that it war,
as impossible for England to keep down and govern France, as it
would be for Frenchmen to keep down and govern England.
CHAPTER XXX.
HENRY VI.— "THE FREEING OF FRANCE."
1422-1445.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VI.
Henry VI, son of Henry V. and Catherine of j
France, sometimes called "Henry of j
Wi-ds>r," b. 1421, became king (*t \
the age of nine months) 1422, d. i
1471.
Margaret Of AnjOU, wife of Henry VI., \
daughter of Rene, King of Naples i
in Italy, m. 1445.
Edward, Prince of Wales, son of Henry
VI. and Margaret, killed 1471.
Catherine, widow of Henry V., and mother
of Henry VI., d. 143?.
Owen Tudor, a Welsh gentleman, second
husband of Catherine, widow of Henry
V. , m. 1423, d. 1461.
Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, son
of Owen Tudor, and father of Henry
VII., King of England.
Charles VII., King of France, 1422-1461.
Joan Of Arc, "The Maid of Orleans," b. i
1412, burnt 1431.
John, Duke Of Bedford, uncle of Henry
VI.. and general of the English !
troops in France, d. 1435.
Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (" the Good :
Duke Humphrey"), uncle of Henry j
VI., Recent of England together •
with Bedford, d. H47-
Cardinal Beaufort, one of the Regents with
Bedford and Gloucester, d. 1447.
Richard, Duke of York, grandson of Edmund
Langley, great-grandson of Edward
III., leader of the Yorkists, killed at
Wakefield 1460.
Edward, son of Richard, Duke of York,
b. 1442, afterwards King of England.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester, son of
Richard, Duke of ^ork, and brother
of Edward, afterwards King of Eng-
land, b. 1452.
Richard Neville, Earl of \Varwick, a leader
of the Yorkists sometimes called " The
King Maker," and "The Last of the
Barons," b. 1428, killed 1471, at Barnet.
Jack Cade, leader of "Cades Rebellion,"
when the rioters marched to London,
taken and killed 1450.
John Fust and John Gutenberg, of Ment/,
in Germany, who set up the first print-
ing press, and made the first metal
types for printing, 1442-1450.
William Caxton, first English printer, b.
1421.
Christopher ColumbUS, who discovered
Amen: a, b. in Genoa 1436.
Mahomet II., Sultan of he T iv- M5I-T453.
HISTORY OF ENGL
J'klNCIPAL KYKNTS DURING Ulh KKldN OF HENRV Vi.
1424.
1428.
1429.
1430.
1431.
1438-
1445-
1450.
1451-
1453.
I45S.
1460.
Henry VI. becomes kirg.
Charles Vll. becomes King of France.
James, King of Scotland released by
Henry.
Marriage of Queen Catherine to Owen
Tudor.
War in France.
Bedford Regent in France.
The Earl of Salisbury besieges Orleans.
Joan of Arc visits the King of France.
Joan of Arc leads th
and relieves Orleans.
ng o
Fren
ch troops
Charles crowned at Rheims.
Capture of Joan of Arc.
Trial and execution of Joan of Arc.
Further disasttrs to the English army
in France.
Death of Queen Catherine.
Marriage of Henry VI. and Margaret
of Anjou.
Jack Cade's Rebellion.
Quarrel between the Duke of Somerset
and the Duke of York.
Loss of all the English dominions in
France except Calais.
Biith of Edward, Prince of Wales.
King Henry becomes imbecile.
The Turks under Mahomet II. take
Constantinople, May 2Qth.
Beginning of the Wars of the Roses.
Victory of the Yorkists at St. Albans.
Truce between York and Lancaster.
The Yorkists take up arms but are dis-
persed.
Defeat and capture of Henry at North-
ampton.
Margaret raises an army, and defeats
the Yorkists at Wakefield.
Richard, Duke of York, killed at Wake-
field.
1461. Defeat of the Yorkists at St. Albans.
Prince Edward, son of Richard, Duke
of York, defeats the Lancastrians at
Mortimer's Cross, near Htreford, and
marches to London.
Edward declares Henry to have for-
feited the Crown, and is proclaimed
King as Edward IV.
Defeat of the Lancastrians at Towton.
Edward crowned in London.
Margaret seels aid in France.
1464. Margaret takes up arms again. Lan-
castrians defeated at Hex ham.
Edward marries Elizabeth Woodville,
widow of Sir John Grey.
1470. Insurrection against Edward. Edward
taken prisoner by the Earl of War-
wkk, and imprisoned in MiddKham
Castle.
Edward released and replaced on the
throne.
Edward defeats Warwick. Warwick
offers his help to Queen Margaret.
Warwick raises an army lor King
Henry.
Flight of Edward to Holland, and
entry of Warwick into London.
1471. Return of Edward, battle of Barnet,
and death of Warwick.
Victory of the Yorkists at Tewkesbury.
Death of Edward, son of Henry and
Margaret.
Imprisonment of Margaret in the
Tower.
Death of Henry VI.
The " Maid of Orleans."
"/ have come to ash that I may be taken to the King; he cares not
for me or my words; nevertheless, ere mid-Lent comes I must be before
the King, even though I have to wear my legs to the knees in journeying
to him. For no one in the world, neither King, nor Duke, nor Scottish
Princess,1 nor any other, can recover the Kingdom of France ; nor is there
any succour for it save me alone, though rather would I stay at home
and spin by my poor mother's side .... but go I must, because such is
the wish of the Lord." — Chronicle of Joan of Arc.
WHEN Henry V. died he was master of France. The English dominion
covered the whole of the great piece which is marked on the map
1 A marriage between the Dauphin Louis and the daughter of the King of Scotland was
then under discussion. The Scottish king had promised to send aid to Charles VII-
THK "MAID OF ORL'EAKS.** 2$$
(p. 234), and after the battle of Agincourt it was no idle boast for a
King of England to call himself King of France.
But what Henry V. won, Henry VI. lost. Henry VI.,(41) who came to
the throne on his father's death, was but a child nine months old, his
little head, too small to wear the crown of England, was crowned with
his mother's bracelet. While the little Henry was king in name, his
uncles, the Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester, together with Henry Beaufort,
Bishop of Winchester, really had the kingly power, and were made
" Regents " of the kingdom.
Henry's life was long and unhappy, a time of war and suffering. In
the story of English history it will always be remembered as the reign
in which we lost France. In the history of France it is remembered as
the time of victory, a glorious time for the French people.
The most interesting person we have to do with in the reign of
Henry VI. is neither the King of England nor the King of France, but
a young French girl who was born and brought up far away from courts
and palaces. In one of the chief streets of the great city of Paris there
is a statue of this young girl. She is seated on a powerful war-horse,
she is dressed in armour, and in her hand she holds a sword. Her
name is one of the most honoured names in the whole of France. ^It
is Joan of Arc, the peasant girl of Domremy, who saved her country.
The story of Joan can only be told very shortly here. Her father
was a labourer, and Joan was employed during the day in looking after
his sheep. Like many another young Frenchwoman of her time, she
thought with sorrow of the misfortunes of her country, and longed to
see it freed from its English enemies.
As she thought and dreamed of a better time, she fancied that an
angel brought her a message that the happier time was coming, and
that she was to take a part in bringing it about. She told the neigh-
bours, and the neighbours laughed at her, but the neighbours were
wrong and Joan was right ; for, after all, her own heart had spoken to
her truly, and she, the little shepherdess, was really going to do a great
work for France.
She made up her mind that she would go straight to Charles, the
King of France. The king was at Chinon. It was a long journey to get
there, and many were the dangers which Joan had to encounter on the
road ; but at last she reached the king's court. She told him that she
had come to save France : " and you." said she, "shall be crowned King
of France in your own city of RheimsS
Now of this there seemed but little chance, for Rheims and its great
Cathedral, in which the Kings of France were crowned, were in the
hands of the English. The king smiled to see so strange a champion,
240
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
but at last he was moved by Joan's earnest manner, and he ordered the
learned men of his Court to n ask her questions and to find
out all about her, and about M the wonderful message which
she said had come to her /n from the angel.
The learned men soon J3\\ found out that Joan, at any
rate, was full of courage and IJS\ hope, and the French sol-
diers, who had lost so many // IJ^ battles, needed courage and
j.
JOAN OF ARC.
(From the Statue in Paris.)
hope more than anything at that time. And so Joan was sent by
order-of the king to join the royal army, which was trying to raise the
siege of the town of Orleans. She rode forth in full armour, mounted
on a white horse. When she came" among the soldiers, every man
was moved by her courage and by her example, for she did not fear
245 tflSTORY OF
during the thickest part of the tight. Soon men began to believe that
she was indeed specially sent by God to free the kingdom of France
from its enemies. The spirits of the French rose whenever they saw
her, while the English, on their side, were alarmed and perplexed.
Under Joan's leadership, the French army soon raised the siege of
Orleans, defeated the English, and set free the French garrison of the
town, who had long given up all hope of being rescued. From that
time forward the fortunes of the English in France began to fail. In
battle after battle they were defeated. Rheims was retaken, and Joan's
promise came true. Charles was crowned King of France in the
Cathedral (1429). But though Joan had saved her country, she did not
save herself. In the year 1430 she was taken prisoner in a skirmish
outside the town of Compiegne by the soldiers of the Duke of Burgundy.
The English paid 10,000 francs for the prisoner. And now a terrible
event took place. Joan was accused of witchcraft, and it was said that
she had used wicked arts to bewitch her enemies. She was thrown
into prison, and was urged to confess her crime. Once she gave way
to her tormentors, and confessed ; but her courage soon came back to
her, and she withdrew what she had said. She was sentenced to be
imprisoned for life ; but this did not satisfy her enemies, and they soon
found an excuse for putting her on her trial once more. She was
brought before the French Bishop of Beauvais, and was condemned by
him to be burnt alive.
This terrible punishment was carried out on the 3oth of May, 1431,
and poor Joan was burnt to death in the market-place at Rouen, in
Normandy. The square in which she was burnt is still known as " The
Maiden's Square " (Place de la Pucelle), and Joan still lives in the
memory of Frenchmen as " The Maid of Orleans " (La Pucelle d'Orleans).
But though Joan's death was sorrowful, her great work had really been
done. The English power in France had been broken for ever, and
the long war of a hundred years, which had begun in the reign of
Edward III., died out at last in the reign of Henry VI.
All English men and women should admire Joan of Arc, although
she was the enemy of England, and helped to defeat its armies ; for
she was a brave and good woman, who set an example of love of
country, which any Englishman or Englishwoman may be proud to
follow.
Nor must we forget that though Henry VI., and those who lived in
his time, thought that it was a great disgrace to be defeated, and
lamented the loss of France, it was really and truly a most fortunate
thing for England that she was at last freed from the necessity of
trying to keep down the great French people. It was neither right
THE Loss OF J?RA.\CK. 243
hor possible that England should go on governing Franco. Just as
Frenchmen could never really keep down Englishmen in their own
country, so also it was impossible for Englishmen to keep down
Frenchmen in France.
The Loss of France.
"Montjoie St. Denis!"
But the failure of the English in France did not end with the
death of Joan. Quarrels arose between the English and their French
Burgundian allies. The Duke of Bedford, the best of the English
generals, died in 1435. Paris, which it is strange to think had been
long held by English troops and governed by an English governor,
was lost. The gates were thrown open to Charles VII., and the King
of France once more ruled in his own capital.
Maine, the Duchy of Normandy, and Guienne alone remained under
the banner of " St. George," but even these had now to be abandoned.
Maine was given up by treaty in 1444, a condition of the surrender
being that the young English king should receive the hand of Margaret
of Anjou in marriage. The truce that followed this settlement was but
a short one, and five years later (1449) war broke out again. Disaster
once more overtook the English armies, and after an overwhelming
defeat at Formigny (1450) Normandy itself, the duchy from which the
Kings of England had themselves sprung, and which had so long been
an undisputed possession of the English crown, fell into the hands of
the enemy.
It may easily be supposed that the loss of Normandy and the weak-
ness which had led to it proved an encouragement to the forces of
disorder in England, and the loss which the war had inflicted upon the
people made it easy for an active man to stir up revolt in England
itself. In 1450, the same year as the battle which decided the fate of
Normandy, Jack Cade, a soldier of fortune, who had fought in the French
wars, following the example of Wat Tyler in the days of Richard II.,
placed himself at the head of a force composed of discontented men, and
marched with arms, followed by thousands from Kent and Sussex, against
the City of London. Several of the king's officers were killed, and for
a time it seemed as if the rebels would command the city. They had
1 The battle-cry of the Kings of France.
244 HISTORY OF
no common cause except that of the common suffering, and as their
leader promised them the redress of all their grievances and hinted
that they might also become masters of their neighbours' property,
they were naturally eager to support so promising a cause.
But even the weak government of Henry VI. was strong enough to
put down the rebellion of Jack Cade. Cade himself was taken and
executed (1450) and his followers dispersed, but the fact that so
formidable a movement came so near success shows how disturbed
the country was, and how easy it would be for better known men than
Jack Cade to light the fire of civil war.
Though a gleam of good fortune seemed to shine on King Henry
when he succeeded in putting down Cade's rebellion, the dark cloud
soon closed in again. In the year 1453 was lost the last of the great
possessions of England across the Channel. After much fierce fighting,
Bordeaux was taken, and the Province of Guienne fell into the hands
of the French.
Thus it came about that within the short space of thirty-one years
the power of England in France had melted away, and of all the great
possessions in that country over which Henry V. had ruled there
remained to England only Calais and a few small towns in the
neighbourhood. The Channel Islands, part of the Duchy of Normandy,
from which William the Conqueror came, fortunately retained their
connection with England, and they remain to this day among the
brightest ornaments of that crown with which their ruler, the Norman
William, endowed the sovereigns of England, and which now adorns
the brow of our British monarchs, who have no more loyal subjects
than those who live in the Channel Islands.
245
CHAPTER XXXI.
YORK AND LANCASTER.
1445—1455.
The Rival Houses.
"In a word, he1 would have adorned a cloister, though he disgraced a
crown ; and was rather respectable for those vices he wanted than for
those virtues he possessed. He founded the colleges of Eton and Windsor,
and King's College in Cambridge for those scholars who had begun their
studies at Eton. "—Smollett.
THE misfortunes which happened in France were not the only ones
which befell our country in the reign of Henry VI. Unhappily, no
sooner had war with a foreign enemy come to an end, than there began
a " civil" war at home, in which Englishmen fought on both sides.
In order to understand this war, we must be quite clear about one
or two things which helped to bring it about. King Henry VI.(41)
was the son of Henry V.( 6> and of his wife Catherine. 137) Henry, as we
shall remember, was descended from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster,
the fourth son of Edward III. (L>1) He was therefore spoken of as belong-
ing to The House of Lancaster. His mother, Catherine, who became a
widow on the death of Henry V., wished to remain at Court and take
care of the little king her son. But the king's uncles, the Dukes of
Bedford and Gloucester, took so much power into their hands, that
the queen found that she could very seldom get her own way, and
could do very little. She therefore left the Court, and married a Welsh
gentleman named Owen Tudor. (**>
We must not forget the name of this Welsh gentleman ; for though
history tells us little about him, and though he never became very
famous, the name of " Tudor" did become very famous in the history
of England, and some of the greatest Sovereigns that England ever had
were descended from this Owen Tudor.
When his mother, Catherine, went away, Henry was left in the
power of his uncles. He was a dreamy, weak-minded boy, easily
guided by others. His uncles thought that it would be a good thing to
1 Henry VI.
246 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
find him a clever and strong-minded wife, and they therefore arranged
that he should marry Margaret of Anjou ; Margaret, indeed, turned out
to be as strong-minded and ambitious as anyone could wish.
Now we understand about three of the people who come into this
story. There is Catherine, the mother of Henry VI., who first married
Henry V., and then married Owen Tudor. Then there is Henry VI.
himself, a king of the House of Lancaster. And lastly we have Henry's
wife, Margaret of Anjou.
But there is another person about whom we must say something,
namely, Richard, Duke of York(40>. Richard, Duke of York, was, like
Henry, himself a Plantagenet, and descended from both Lionel, Duke of
Clarence, <23> the second son of Edward III.,<21) and from Edmund Langley,
Duke of York, <28> fifth son of Edward III. He was spoken of as belonging
to the House of York. All these relationships may seem rather puzzling^
but they will become clearer if we look at the table on page 266. We
ought to know something about them if we want to understand the
story of these times.
It will be seen, therefore, that among the great families who
claimed descent from Edward III. there were two parties, one repre-
sented by King Henry, the head of the House of Lancaster, the other
by Richard, Duke of York, head of the House of York. Both
sides, therefore, had a claim to the crown, and if anything the
claim of Richard, Duke of York, was the better of the two; but at
that time, as at so many other times in the world's history,
" might " seemed at least as powerful as " right," and the supporters
of Richard were so many and so strong that, as we shall see, they
were able to make good their title by force quite apart from the
question of right.
How that war came about it is now easy to see. The country was
indeed full of the materials which, if once a light be set to them, are
sure to kindle into the fierce flames of civil war. In the first place,
there was the king, a young man of feeble character, whose weak
mind occasionally gave way altogether. His wife, Margaret of Anjou,
possessed all the courage, the ambition, and the energy which her
husband lacked. The early years of the king's reign had been years of
foreign war, and in that war the country had suffered a great and, as
many thought, a disgraceful defeat. The soldiers who had so long
fought in France had returned in thousands to England, where they
became a burden to the peaceful inhabitants from their turbulence ;
unfit for peaceful occupations, they were ready to take the first
opportunity of serving under any leader who would promise them
fighting and plunder,
THE RIVAL HOUSES. 247
Around the king there stood a number of great nobles, ambitious
men anxious to make use of the .king's name to further their own
interests. Of these great noblemen the chief were the families of the
Beauforts, the Tudors, the Percies of Northumberland, the Nevilles
of Westmoreland, the Staffords of Buckingham. Meanwhile, as we
have seen, there was another party opposed to the king and his
friends, a party composed, like that which surrounded Henry, of
great and ambitious nobles, each with his retinue of armed men.
Such were the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick, of the family of
Neville, and John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk. It was to Richard,
Duke of York, that members of this party looked as their head. It
was not long before the rivalry between the two great factions
passed from mere quarrelling into open war ; and it is of this war
that something must be said in this chapter. It is not easy, and it
is not necessary, to follow carefully all the ups and downs, and the
various changes of fortune, which marked the Wars of the Roses,
but a word must be said about the character of the war itself.
The Wars of the Roses, which began in 1455 and lasted for thirty
years, were in some ways very unlike other wars from which our
country has suffered. It was not the people of England who were
fighting against a foreign enemy, nor was it even the people of England
divided into two parties engaged in civil war. It was the White Rose
against the Red Rose, the House of York against the House of
Lancaster, the friends of the House of York against the friends of the
House of Lancaster.
The chief men on either side fought for power and riches. They
fought because they hated each other, they fought because they loved
fighting. They always found plenty of friends who loved power, riches,
and fighting, ready to join them.
But, strange as it may seem, these terrible wars, which lasted so
long, and in which so many fierce battles were fought, did not do much
harm to the common people of England. Great battles were fought in
different places, and many of the great lords and their followers were
killed on both sides. But even quite close to places where the battles
were fought, work went on, and people lived quietly, peaceably,
without caring much what happened in the battle, or which side won.
There is a famous collection of letters which were written by
members of the family of Paston to one another at this time. They
have been put together in a book, and we can read them now. It is
strange to notice how little those who were not actually concerned in
the fighting seemed to think about the war that was going on. In
many of the letters, nothing is said about the Wars of the Roses, or
248
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
about the House of Lancaster or the House of York ; and when we
read them, we might think that there had been perfect peace in. the
country at the time when they were written.
White Rose and Red Rose.
SOMERSET : " Let him that is no coward, nor no flatterer
Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me.
WARWICK : I hue no colours, and without all colour
Of base insinuating flattery
I pluck this white rose with Plantagenet.
SUFFOLK : I pluck this red rose with young Somerset
And say withal I think he held the right. "
Shakespeare : -: Henry VI. ," Part I.
Every reader of English history is familiar with the name which
has been given to the long struggle which began in the reign of
Henry VI., and ended thirty years later at the battle of Bosworth Field
(1485). We describe it as the "Wars of
the Roses." The phrase has become so
much a part of our history that it is
worth while to say a few words as to
what it means, and how it came to be
used.
The two most important counties in
England are Yorkshire and Lancashire. They
are great rivals in many things, though they
are happily not enemies. If we look at a
soldier who belongs to one of the Yorkshire
regiments, such as the King's Own York-
shire Light Infantry (sist and io5th) we
shall see that he bears on his collar a Rose.
If we look at a soldier of one of the
Lancashire regiments, such for instance
as the Royal North Lancashire (47th and
8ist) we shall see that he, too, has on his collar a Eose.
The rose is one of the crests or signs of Yorkshire, and it is also
one of the crests or signs of Lancashire, but there is a difference between
the two. If we see the rose painted up in Yorkshire, as we may
do in many places, we shall see that it is a White Rose; but if we
saw it painted up in Lancashire, it would be a Red Rose.
A ROSE FROM THE DECORA-
TIONS OF THE HOUSES OF
PARLIAMENT
WHITE ROSE AND RED ROSE.
249
If we go into the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, we can
see in some of the coloured glass windows the White Rose of York and
the Red Rose of Lancaster joined together. How was it that these
two roses ever came to be divided ? How was it that they ever came
together again ? That is what we shall learn in the next few chapters.
On the Thames Embankment in London there is a great block
THE QUARREL IN THE TEMPLE GARDENS.
of buildings where lawyers live. There are gardens in front of the
buildings which come nearly down to the river. The great block
of buildings is called The Temple, and the gardens are the Temple
Gardens.
On a summer's day, some four hundred years ago, Richard, Duke of
York(40) and John Beaufort, (i!0 Earl of Somerset, who was of the House of
Lancaster, were walking in the Temple Gardens with their friends.
The story says that the two quarrelled, and that their friends took
up the quarrel on either side. Then Beaufort plucked a Red Rose
from a bush hard by, and said to his friends, " Let those who are of
my party wear my flower.'" Then the Duke of York plucked a Wrhite
Rose for his badge. And so it came about that the Red Rose stood for
the House of Lancaster, and the White Rose for the House of York,
not only in this first quarrel, but in the terrible war which followed it.
250
HISTORY OF
CHAPTER XXXII.
EDWARD IV.
1455-1483.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED
Edward IV., ?on of Richard, Duke of York,
ancl Cicely Neville, King of England,
b. 1442, became King 1461, d. 1483,
reigned 22 years.
Elizabeth WOOdville, widow of Sir John
Grey, wife of Edward IV., m. 1464.
Elizabeth, afterwards wife of King Henry VI I .
Edward, afterwards Edward V.
Richard, Duke of York ;
and four other daughters.
George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward
IV., murdered 1478.
M THE REIGN OF EDWARD IV.
Richard, Duke of G'oucester, brother of
Edward IV., afterwards King of Eng.
land, b. 1450.
Lord Rivers and Lord Grey, members of
the Queen's family.
Louis XI., King of France, 1461 — 1483.
William Caxtqn, who introduced the art of
printing into England
Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, sister of
Edward IV., who befriended William
Caxton.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF EDWARD IV.
(After the Death of Henry VI.)
1475. Edward claims the crown of France
and lands with an army at Calais.
Edward collects money for the French
war in the form of " Benevolences," or
taxes levied from the people \\itt.out
the consent of Parliament.
1475. Louis XF. of France persuades Edward
to give up l.is claims and to le.ve
France.
1478. Edward accu%s his 1 rcthrr, the Duke
of Clarence, of treason, and causes
him to be murdered in the Tower.
1483. Death of Edward.
The Chances of War-Wakefield— St. Albans - Towton-
Barnet— Tewkesbury.
What is most astonishing in the life of this prince1 is his good fortune,
which seemed to be prodigious. - Rapin.
IT was in 1455 that fighting first began. A battle was fought (May
23rd) at St. Albans, in which the Yorkist party were the victors. King
Henry himself was taken prisoner by Richard, Duke of York, and
the Duke of Somerset, the king's chief minister, was killed. But
though the king was a prisoner, his wife was free, and determined
at any cost to destroy her enemies. She succeeded in stirring up
the king's friends, and this time the fortunes of war turned against
the Yorkists, who were routed at Ludford, near Ludlow, in 1459.
It was one of the most unfortunate features in this unhappy war
that as each party gained the upper hand it sought by cruelty
and oppression to destroy its opponents, and, as might have been
» Edwaid IV.
THE CFIAXCKS OF WAR. 251
expected, the attempt only drove the defeated party into fiercer
resistance. Men who feel that they have nothing to lose are always
dangerous enemies; and thus on the present occasion the defeated
Yorkists, united by the violence of the king's party, again appeared in
arms. On the loth of July, 1460, the Earl of Warwick defeated the
Lancastrians at Northampton. A second time the king was taken
prisoner, and a second time the queen escaped to carry on the war.
The Duke of York seemed now to have within his reach the prize for
which he longed— namely, the crown of England, for King Henry was
in his power; 'but as yet he did not dare to enforce his claim. Ke
demanded, however, that he should succeed King Henry, thus de-
priving the Prince of Wales, Henry's eldest son, of his rights.
But Queen Margaret, ever courageous and determined, had suc-
ceeded once more in rallying the Lancastrian forces. At the battle of
Wakefield (December 3ist, 1460), the Yorkists suffered a terrible defeat.
Richard, Duke of York, was slain on the field. A second battle at St.
Albans (February iyth, 1461) gave another victory to the Lancastrians
and restored the king to his friends. London, which throughout stood
by the Yorkists, was only saved by the valour of Edward, the young
son of Richard of York, who arrived with his troops in time to protect
the City.
And now, for the first time we have the strange spectacle of
two kings of England demanding the allegiance of the people, for
Edward with the consent of his followers, boldly claimed the crown,
and proclaimed himself King of England as Edward IV. He soon
proved himself worthy of his position. He advanced against the
Lancastrians, and on the zgth of March, 1461, engaged them at
Fowton, near Tadcaster. The battle, in which 60,000 men were slain,
was one of the fiercest in all the war, and once more fortune deserted
the cause of Henry. His army was defeated and almost destroyed,
while many of the most powerful Lancastrian nobles were slain on the
field. Henry fled to Scotland, and for a time Edward reigned as
undisputed King of England. His strength lay partly in his own
character as a skilful and courageous commander in battle, but it was
probably from the support which he received from the great Earl
of Warwick, the most powerful of the Yorkist nobles, that he owed his
success at this time. So great was the power of Warwick, so impor-
tant was his aid to the party which he supported, that he came to be
called "Warwick, the King-Maker," and indeed it seemed as if the
gift of the crown of England lay in his strong hands.
In the short interval of peace which now followed, an event of some
importance took place. This was the marriage of Edward to Elizabeth
252 HISTORY ov ENGLAND.
Woodville, the widow of Sir John Grey, one of the Lancastrian party.
The marriage was made contrary to the advice of Warwick, who
desired to see the king married to a French princess, and who disliked
the Woodvilles and feared their influence over the king. From that
time forward the "King-Maker" set himself to injure Edward and
to help the fallen Henry. He secretly entered into an agreement
with the Lancastrians. Edward himself was entrapped by a party
of Lancastrians and imprisoned, and for a short time Warwick was
sufficiently powerful to wreak his vengeance upon the hated family
of Woodville, and to secure the execution of Earl Rivers, the head
of the Woodville family (1469).
It seemed, however, fated that in this strange civil war the victor,
whoever he was, must expect to see himself within a very short time in
the position of the vanquished. Edward escaped from his prison and
took the field. Warwick now openly turned traitor and joined Henry
and Queen Margaret, who in 1470 made one last attempt to recover the
crown. But again Edward proved himself an unrivalled general in the
field. The two armies met at Barnet, a few miles north of London.
The Yorkists were victorious, a fog covered the field of battle, and
Warwick, " the King- Maker " and traitor, losing his way, arrived only
in time to find the battle lost. Falling into the hands of the victorious
Yorkists, he was slain, together with his brother and his principal
followers (i4th April, 1471). One more attempt to retrieve their fallen
fortunes was made by the Lancastrians, and Margaret, courageous to
the last, led her army against Edward. At Tewkesbury, however, a
battle took place (4th May, 1471), and Edward was again completely
victorious. Margaret herself was taken prisoner, and her son Edward
was killed.
A few days later the feeble King Henry, once more in the hands of
his enemies was murdered in his prison, it is said by the hand, or at any
rate by the order, of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, brother of the king.
And thus, at last, Edward found himself in undisputed possession of
the crown, and for a time at least the House of York was supreme.
Edward IV. now reigned as King of England, with no one to dispute
his right. The war had been long and disastrous. Many men had
lost their lives on both sides, but the greatest loss had been among the
nobles. When the ^ouse of Lords was called together after the
Wars of the Roses, there were less than forty lords left to obey
the call.
Little space need be devoted to the reign of Edward IV. after the
battle of Tewkesbury. That battle was fought, as we have read, in
the year 1471, and for twelve years King Edward reigned as undisputed
THE CHANCES OF WAR. 253
king, enjoying the ease which his previous activity in the field had
won for him. It cannot be said that he was a good king, but he was
undoubtedly a popular one and deserved to be so, for he allowed his
subjects to enjoy for the first time for many years the blessings of
peace. His subjects were not slow to take advantage of the oppor-
tunity given to them, and it is from this period that we must date the
beginning of the growth of wealth in England which became so marked
a hundred years later.
Of the great nobles with their turbulent following many had been
slain, others had been ruined or banished from the country. Mean-
while, a class of wealthy merchants, who cared nothing for the disputes
of the nobles, had been growing up. Trade with foreign countries had
increased, and the war which had ruined the nobility had left the
country but little the worse. Nor did Edward run the risk of losing
his popularity by making excessive demands upon Parliament. He
preferred rather to compel a small number of rich men to pay him
money under the form of forced loans, or " benevolences," than to
trouble Parliament for " supplies." This plan found favour with the
many who were not asked to contribute, and they did not care to ask
whether it were legal or not. They were content that others should be
called upon to pay as long as they themselves went free. It has been
said with truth that " the price of liberty is eternal vigilance," and the
proverb receives its illustration in this case, for Parliament having
once given up or ceased to exercise its right to vote money, found
it difficult to regain that right when it desired to do so. We shall
learn in a later chapter how our English Sovereigns, having learnt
from King Edward how to govern without a Parliament, improved the
lesson and reduced Parliament for many years to a condition in which
it was almost powerless either for good or evil.
Unluckily, the bitter enmities which had been raised during the
Wars of the Roses had not as yet been exhausted. Hatred and
distrust still divided parties, and even families, and in the year 1478
Edward, convinced that his own brother, George, Duke of Clarence,
was plotting against him, threw him into prison, and caused him to be
put to death. His younger brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, he
trusted, but his trust was terribly misplaced.
On the gth of April, 1483, Edward died, leaving two sons, Edward
aged twelve, and Richard aged nine, and five daughters, of whom we
must remember the eldest, Elizabeth by name, who at ths time of her
father's death was eighteen years of age,
254 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE INVENTION OF PRINTING.
William Caxton and the Compositor's Case.
" There are no tools more ingeniously wrought, or more potent than those
which belong to the art of the printer."— The Common School Journal. 1843.
BEFORE passing to the history of the next reign, something must be
said of certain events which took place in our history during the reign
of Edward IV., which, though they are not part of the political history of
the time, are of very great importance, and had a great influence upon
the life of our nation. The fifteenth century will always be memorable
as that in which the art of printing was introduced into England.
Before the time of Edward IV. — that is to say, before the year 1470
— printing was unknown in England. The art of Printing had been
known and practised for some time abroad, but there had been no
printing press set up in England.
The name of the first man who brought the printing press into
England ought to be remembered, for few things have made more
difference to our country than the invention of printing. The name of
the man of whom I speak was William Caxton. When he was quite a
young man, he came up to London from Kent, and got employment in
the shop of a man who dealt in wool and woollen goods. At that time,
most of the wool which was used in England was bought and sold at the
great markets which were held at the town of Bruges, in Belgium. He
stayed in Bruges for many years working at his trade. He got on very
well, and became rich and much respected. It was not till he was fifty
years old that Caxton made a great change in his business, a change
which ended in making his name very famous in English history.
The town of Bruges was under the government of the Duke of
Burgundy, and the Duke of Burgundy had married Margaret, the sister
of King Edward IV. of England.
IV I L L I A M CA A TON.
255
Now it happened that Caxton had been amusing himself by trans-
lating into English a French poem called "The History of Troy."
Margaret was very friendly to Caxton, who was her countryman, and
when she heard that he was translating the " Siege of Troy," she sent
for him and asked him to read it to her. When he had finished the
whole work, the princess asked him to give her a copy of it to send to
her friends in England. But to copy out a poem which fills a whole
book is a long and tiresome task, and Caxton soon became very tired
of the work.
He got so tired of it that at last he decided to go to some
Dutch printers who
were living in Bruges,
and who were among
the first persons who
printed books in
Europe. From these
printers he learnt how
to print himself, and
before very long was
able to print a copy
of his poem for the
princess.
Margaret sent the
book over to her
brother, and those
who saw it in Eng-
land were astonished
and delighted with the work. At last Caxton made up his mind to
leave Bruges arid to come over to England. He brought with him
his printing press, and set it up near Westminster Abbey in London.
There he soon set to work to print books, and though his press
was a very small one, and worked much more slowly than those
which are used now, he was able during his life to print no less than
Ninety-nine books.
It was in the year 1477 that Caxton first set up his printing press in
England, and from that time the number of printing presses has
increased very quickly, and now millions of books are printed each
year. We must not forget that it was to William Caxton that the credit
is due of having been the first to bring the art of printing into England.
An instructive and rather amusing historical lesson may be learnt
from an article which is in daily use in every printing office at the
present day.
CAXTON PRESENTING HIS BOOK TO EDWARD IV.
(f''rt>m the MS. in the Lisia^y of Lainbtth. Paluce).
2 5 6 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The man who sets up or " composes " the different types or letters
for a book such as that which we are now reading, is called a
"compositor" He has before him, when he is " composing," two shallow
trays made of wood, divided into a number of little boxes or com-
partments. The metal types which he uses are kept in these little
boxes : all the A's in one, the B's in another, the C's in another, and so
on. He takes them out and arranges them in the proper order to spell
the words which have to be printed.
The trays which hold the type are called " cases." All the capital
letters, A, B, C, D, and so 'on, are in the top case, or, as printers call it,
" the upper case." The little boxes in which the capital letters are
of
at tt$nwfte tfjegjw of our I
(LC CO £0t)* W Mt 600 a te Cafe
LINES FROM A BOOK PRINTED BY CAXTON.
kept, are arranged in the order of the alphabet, A, B, C, D, and so on,
until we come to the letter J. There is no place here for the letter J,
Then we go on in the proper order, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, and so on.
until we come to the letter U. The letter U, like the letter J, is out of
its place. We must go on to the end of the alphabet, and after we have
finished all the other boxes, down to X; Y, and Z, M and CE, we shall
find the two compartments for J and U.
It seems at first as if the order in which a compositor's case is
arranged could have very little to do with the history of King
Edward IV. ; but we shall see that the arrangement of the letters in
the compositor's case does after all tell us a little story of its own, and
does really take us back a great many years in our history.
The first compositor's case that was ever used in England was made
in the reign of Edward IV., and it was made to hold all the letters
which people used at that time. But in the time of Edward IV. the
letters J and U were never used in writing. " I " was used instead of
J, and V did duty for U. If King Edward, when writi-g a letter to his
brother Richard of York,(4i) had wanted to put a date June 8th, he would
probably have written it. with the letters IVNE viiith.
THE COMPOSITOR'S CASE.
257
And so it was natural enough that when the first compositor's case
was made, no place should be found for J and U. Many years after-
wards, the two letters came to be used in English printing. The
compositors had got so used to the old order with the J and the U left
out that they never liked to alter it, so they decided to stick the two
letters in at the end, and the compositor's alphabet now ends " W, X,
Y, Z, JE, CE, U, J."
In Chapter XXVI. we read an account of the battle of Crdcjy, and
we learnt how for the' first time gunpowder was used on the field of
battle. The use of gunpowder made a very great change in the world,
for it made the Weak equal to the Strong, and it enabled a poor man to
' LOWER CASE OR SMALL LETTERS.
"UPPER CASE" OR CAPITALS.
have as good arms and to defend himself as well as a rich man. We
may truly say of gunpowder that it made/ all men mote equal, by
making the strong and the proud less powerful than before.
But if gunpowder made a great change in the world, the invention
of Printing made a still greater change. There is something else besides
strength and courage which gives power, and that is Knowledge. From
the day when printing was invented, it became possible for thousands
and thousands of people, who had never before had a chance of learn-
ing, to buy and read books and to acquire the knowledge which the
books contained.
In our own time there are none so poor that they cannot,
if they choose, learn from books. Every child is taught how to read
in the schools ; books cost only a few pence, and for those who are not
able, or who do not care, to spend even a few pence, there are Public
Libraries in almost all towns, and in many villages, in which people can
read the best books without any payment. The invention of printing
made all people more equal than they were before, because it raised up
those who were poor and ignorant by giving them the chance of reading
and learning things which, before there were printed books, only the
rich could read and learn,
258 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The Fall of Constantinople,
" The capture of Constantinople by the Turks, and the flight of its
Greek scholars to the shores of Italy, opened anew the science and literature
of the older world, at the very hour when the intellectual energy of the
Middle Ages had sunk into exhaustion."— J. R. Green.
There is one thing which ought not to be forgotten when we read
the history of the first printing press in England. Caxton's printing
press was set up in the year 1477 in Westminster. In the year 1453,
or twenty-four years earlier, the great city of Constantinople had been
besieged and taken by the Turks. The Christians who lived in it
had been put to death or turned out, and all the great libraries and
schools in Constantinople had been broken up or destroyed.
At first it seemed as if the taking of Constantinople, far away in
Turkey, had little to do with the setting-up of a printing press in
Westminster, but we shall see that really the two things had a great
deal to do with each other.
For many hundreds of years, learned men from all parts of Europe
had gone to live at Constantinople to study Greek and Latin, and to
read the Greek and Latin books which were kept at the libraries
of Constantinople. But when Constantinople was taken by the Turks,
all these Latin and Greek scholars were driven out of the city. They
were glad to escape with their lives, and with such books as they could
carry away with them. They wandered all over Europe, and, being
learned men, many of them found a welcome in the cities and towns
in which they stopped. In these cities and towns they began to teach
the people how to read the Latin and Greek books which they had
brought with them, and also taught them to read the Latin and Greek
books which were kept in many of the towns of Europe, but which Jew
people at that time were able to read.
But if there had been no way of adding to the number of books
except by writing them out with a pen from beginning to end, it is
plain that very few people would have been able to read them or to take
advantage of the New Learning which had come from Constantinople.
Luckily, it was just at this time that the printing press was in-
vented, and so it came about that as fast as people were taught to read
the Greek and Latin books we have spoken about, there were found
THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE.
259
printers to make copies of them, and to spread them all over Europe.
In this way, many books which had been forgotten for more than a
thousand years, became known again, and all the great thoughts of
famous men who lived in Greece and in Rome in ages past were made
known once more to people in every country. Thus we see that at the
time when the printing presses first made it possible to print a great
number of books, there happened to be a great number of books which
it was necessary to print.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
EDWARD V, AND RICHARD III.
1483-1485.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGNS OF EDWARD V.
AND RICHARD III.
Edward V., King of England, the right heir
to the crown, eldest son of Edward
IV., b. 1470, murdered in the Tower
1483.
Richard, second son of Edward IV. and
brother of King Edward V., mur-
dered in the Tower 1483.
Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward IV.,
sister of the young princes, became
wife of Henry of Richmond, alter-
wards King Henry VII.
Richard III., King of England, son of
Richard, Duke of York, and brother
to Edward IV., b. 1450, became
king 1483, killed at Bosworth 1485,
reigned two years.
Anne Neville, daughter of the Earl of
Warwick, and widow of Edward,
Prince of Wales (son of Henry VI.),
wife of Richard HI., m. 1472.
Elizabeth, widow of Edward IV. and
mother of the young princes and of
Elizabeth, d. 1402.
Henry of Richmond, son of Edmund
Tlldor and Margaret Beaufort, after •
wards King of England.
Philip de Comines, the great French
historian, who wrote the history of
these times, b. 1445, d. 1509.
Christopher ColumbUS, who discovered
America, b. 1435.
Martin Luther, the great German Reformer,
b. 1483.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGNS OF EDWARD V. AND
RICHARD III.
1483. April 30, Richard seizes the young
King Edward, and declares himstlf
king.
July 6, Richard crowned.
August, the young princes murdered in
the Tower,
1483. October 18, insurrection of the Lancas-
trians under Buckingham. Buck-
ingham captured and executed.
1485. August, Henry of Richmond lands at
Milford.
August 2?, Battle of Bosworth. Death
of Richard. Henry crowned king
260 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The Last of the Plantagenets.
" We must Hue together like brothers, fight together likn jion~, and fear
not to die together like men. And if you consider and wisely ponder all
things in your mind, you shall perceive that we have manifest causes and
apparent tokens of triumph and victory. . . . Wherefore, advance
forth your standards, and everyone give but one sure stroke, and surely the
journey is ours. And as for me, I assure you this day I will triumph by
victory, or suffer death for immortal fame." — Address of Richard III. to his
army before the battle of Bosworth.
THE names of two kings have been placed at the head of this chapter,
and, indeed, the events which occurred during the reign of the poor
boy whose name figures in our history as Edward V. require but little
record. It will be remembered that on his death Edward IV. left two
sons, Edward and Richard, both of them children. Edward was un-
doubtedly the true heir to the crown if the throne were to go to the
Yorkists ; but here again we have proof that sometimes " might " takes
the place of " right," and that violence and cruelty triumph, if only for
a short time. It has been mentioned that Edward IV. trusted his
younger brother Richard, Duke .of Gloucester, and with little reason
for his confidence. From the day of his brother's death Richard
determined that, whatever obstacles might stand in the way, the crown
of England should be his. It is plain that the chief obstacle lay in the
life of his two nephews ; but these young children were defenceless, and
Richard made up his mind (to sweep them from his path. He ordered
the little King Edward and his brother to be shut up close prisoners in
the Tower of London. There they were smothered as they lay in their
beds, and the place where their bodies were buried under one of the
stone staircases is still pointed out to those who visit the Tower. That
Richard was the author of the murder no one really doubted, but the
Duke of Gloucester was too powerful a man to meddle with, and
Richard was able to gratify his long-cherished ambition to claim, with
the assent of Parliament, the crown of England,
For a short time, and a short time only, he compelled the country
to acknowledge his lawless rule ; and in the first year of his reign he
even succeeded in putting down a rebellion led by the Duke of
Buckingham, whom he defeated, took prisoner, and ordered to be
executed. But his punishment was not far off, and once more the.
House qf kanca&ter was to triumph over the House of York,
26 1
The First of the Tudors.
"Let us, therefore, fight like invincible giants, and set on our enemies
like untimorous tigers, and banish all fear like raging lions. And now
advance forward, true men against traitors, pitiful persons against
murtherers, true inheritors against usurpers, the scourges of God against
tyrants. Display my banner with a good courage ; march forth like strong
and robustious champions, and begin the battle like hardy conquerors. . . .
In the Name of Gcd and St. George, let every man courageously advance forth
his standard. " — Proclamation of Henry, Earl of Richmond, to his army before the
battle of Bosworth.
In order to understand who it was that drove Richard III, from his
throne, we must go back to what we read in Chapter XXXI, It
will be remembered that when Henry V, died, his widow, Gathering, (37)
lived for a time at the Court of her little son, Henry VI,, but that
at last she got tired of the continual interference of the king's uncles,
the Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester, She went away from the
Court, and married a Welsh gentleman named Owen Tudor. (38) We
said that this Welsh gentleman ought to be remembered became
the name of Tudor would come in again in English history ; and
now we shall see how it was that the name of Tudor became the
name of the kings and queens of England^
Catherine and Owen Tudor had a son, who was called Edmund,
Earl of Richmond, (4-} and Edmund, Earl of Richmond, married Margaret
Beaufort,?4;0 daughter of the Duke of Somerset/3^ who, we must re-
member, was a Lancastrian, Edmund and Margaret ha4 a son called
Henry*-48-* — " Harry of Richmond," as he is called in Shakespeare — and
it is with this son Henry, or " Harry of Richmond," we haye now got to do.
It is clear, therefore, that Harry of Richmond was altogether one of
the Red Rose party, and to him all the Lancastrians now looked as
their champion against Richard III,(46) Henry had n°t only many
friends among the Lancastrians, but he had also friends among the
Yorkists ; for Richard, by his cruelty, had made himself hated..
And so, at last, the Lancastrians made up their minds once more £p
try the fortune of war, Henry of Richmond was in France. Qn the
ist of August, 1485, he sailed from Harfleur in that country, and after a
voyage of seven days arrived at Milford Haven, in Wales. He brought
with him a small army of 3,000 men, Many Welshmen joined him ;
they remembered that he was himself the grandson of a Welshman —
Owen Tudor.
Henry now marched eastward into England, and was soon joined
562
jffi 'STORY OF
by several thousand men. As soon as the news reached King Richard,
he put himself at the head of his troops and inarched to meet his rival.
On the 2ist of August the king reached Bosworth, twelve miles from
Leicester. He had with him 30,000 men, but many df these were
secret enemies of his cause, and he dared not trust them. Henry had
by this time reached Tamworth. His army, though much smaller than
that of the king, was composed of men who had all willingly joined him,
and who were ready to die for his cause.
On the 22nd of August was fought the famous battle of Bosworth
Field. Both Richard and Henry fought valiantly in the hottest of the
battle. Scarcely had the fight begun when Lord Stanley, who, with
5,000 men, had hitherto sided with King Richard, suddenly came
over with all his followers to Henry of Richmond. The royal troops
were disheartened, but the misfortune
only encouraged Richard himself to fight
more fiercely than before.
Three times he charged with his
horsemen against the centre of the
enemy. His hope was to kill Henry of
Richmond, and he dashed forward
crying, " Treason '•/ treason ! treason!'1'' He
killed, with his own hand, Sir William
Brandon, who bore Henry's standard.
V~ JJBA 13 He cut down Sir John Cheyner, who
1 r dii^$^ "^* was c^ose to Henry, and he dealt a
U j4a§«£&i»&si desperate blow at his rival. But here
his short success ended. Sir William
Stanley rode up with his followers, and
Richard, fighting fiercely, was borne
to the ground and slain.
The body of the king was stripped of his rich armour. Richard had
ridden into the battle with a golden crown upon his helmet. When he
fell, the crown rolled away and could not be found. At last it was
discovered lying under a hawthorn bush. Sir William Stanley brought
the golden circlet to Henry of Richmond, and there, on the field of
battle, he placed it on the conqueror's head, hailing him no longer as
Henry of Richmond, but as Henry VII, King of England. So fell Richard
of Gloucester, the last of the Plantagenet Kings.
Many hard things have been said of Richard III., and many of them
are no doubt well deserved ; but we must not forget that most of the
accounts which we have of his life were written by his enemies, who told
all that was bad and little that was good about him. It is of Richard,
THE CROWN IN THE HAWTHORN
BUSH: A TUDOR EMBLEM.
RICHARP rir AT THE BATTLE OF BOSWORTH.
264
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Duke of Gloucester, that Shakespeare's great play " Richard III." is
written. In that play we have Richard described as a man of great
cruelty, and a deformed hunchback. Whether Richard were in fact as
black as he was painted we cannot now with certainty determine, but
that he gained the throne by violence and cruelty is undoubted, and
there were few in England who were grieved when he in turn lost by
violence that which he had so shamefully won.
The Union of the Roses.
"We will unite the white rose with the red:—
Smile, Heaven, upon this fair conjunction,
That long hath frown' d upon their enmity !
What traitor hears me, and says not, Amen ?"
Shakespeare: " Richard III.'
With Henry VII. we begin the story of the Tudors, and this must be
told in another chapter. But though with Richard there ended the
line of the Plantagenet Kings,
and though the battle of
Bosworth crushed the power
of the House of York, it is
pleasant to think that after
all these long wars and
this fierce fighting, the
bitter quarrel between Red
Rose and White Rose was
at last made up by a happy
marriage.
We shall remember that
when Edward IV. died, he
left several children, includ-
ing the two little princes,
Edward <*'> and Richard, ™
who were smothered in the
Tower. The eldest girl
was Elizabeth. (4<J) The year
A YORK AND LANCASTER ROSE, RED AND after the battle of Bosworth
WHITE ON THE SAME STALK. Field, Henry of Richmond,
now King Henry VII.,lls)
married Elizabeth, daughter of EdwaiJ IV., a princess of the House
of York.
THE UNION OF THE
265
There is a rose-tree which we sometimes see in old-fashioned
gardens which is called the " York and Lancaster rose," for the roses
which it bears have their petals streaked with red and white, or some
flowers red and others white. This flower might well have become the
emblem of the Kings of England after the marriage of Henry VII.
For now, indeed, the Red Rose and the White Rose were united,
and the great Houses of Lancaster and York- were friends at last.
267
PART FOUR.
THE TUDORS.
1485-1603.
NOTE.
The portion of our history which is described in the Fourth
Part of this book is peculiarly full of interest and
variety. It is in every sense a brilliant and exciting
period, in which men of action and men of thought
crowd upon the scene, and in which the genius of the
English race may be said to have found its highest
expression. The Tudor Sovereigns tJiemsclvcs, with all
their faults, were men and women of strong character,
well fitted for the stirring times in which they lived.
In the short space of 118 years, during which they ruled
over the country, the whole world, and England as
part of the world, seemed to be changed. It is not often
in the world's history that the ideas of the grandson
are so widely different from those of the grandfather,
that the latter would have altogether failed to under-
stand the ideas and expressions of the former. And
yet, if we remember what a change passed over the
world in the closing years of the fourteenth and the
beginning of the fifteenth centuries, we shall be able
to understand that for once, at any rate, men could
speak of something new with the certainty that the
knowledge which they possessed had never been granted
to those who came before them.
In England men became aware that there was a New
World, they spoke of a New Learning, and they fought
for a New form of Religion, and in the struggle be-
tween New and Old the full strength of the nation
showed itself. It was a splendid time in our history,
and it was peculiarly an "English" time, for we had
not, as we have had in later days, the help of Irish
genius and Irish courage, and Scotland was still a
foreign and often a hostile kingdom. The story of the
growth and expansion of England in these days is only
less marvellous than that which is familiar io us in
our own day under a greater queen than Elizabeths
268
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
CHAPTER XXXV.
HENRY VII.
1485-1509.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF
HENRY VII.
Henry VII., King of England, son of Edmund
Tudor and Margaret Beaufort, b. 1456,
became king 1485, d. 1509.
Elizabeth Of York, daughter of Edward IV.,
wife of Henry VII., m. 1486, d. 1503.
Arthur, eldest son of Henry, m. Catharine
of Aragon, d. 1502.
Margaret Tudor, eldest daughter of Henry
and Elizabeth, m. James IV. of Scot-
land, d. 1541.
Henry, second son ot Henry, afterwards King
of England.
Mary Tudor, second daughter of Henry, m.
Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, d.
Charles VIIL, King of France, d. 1498.
Louis XII., King of France.
Ferdinand and Isabella, Sovereigns of
Cistile and Aragon, Ferdinand d.
1512.
Maximilian I., Emperor.
James IV., King of Scotland.
Innocent VIII., Pope, d. 1492.
Alexander VI., Pope, poisoned 1503.
Pius III., Pope, d. 1503.
Julius II., Pope.
Christopher ColumbUS, discoverer of the
New World.
Martin Luther, b. 1483.
Thomas Wolsey, afterwards Cardinal
Wolsey, b. 1471.
Empson and Dudley, Ministersof Henry VII.
Cardinal Morton, Henry's Chief Minister,
d. 1506.
Great Painters:—
Leonardo da Vinci (Florentine), b. 1445.
Albert Diirer (German), b. 1471.
Michael AngelO (Florentine), b. 1474.
Titian (Venetian), 1477.
Eaphael d'Urbino (Roman), b. 1483.
CorreggiO (Italian), b. 1494.
Hans Holbein (German), b. 1494.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY VII.
1485. Battle of Bosvvorth. Henry becomes
king.
1486. Henry marries Elizabeth of York.
1487. Lambert Simnel's rebellion.
1496. Sebastian Cabot starts on his voyage
of discovery.
1492-8. Perkin Warbeck's rebellion.
1499. Perkin Warbeck executed.
1502. Prince Arthur dies.
Henry VII. 's Chapel at Westminster
built.
1503. Death of Queen Elizabeth (of York).
Empson and Dudley in office.
1504. Parliament summoned,
1507. Wolsey first employed.
1509. Henry dies.
In this reign Columbus discovered the New World ; Vasco da Gama sailed round the Cape
of Good Hope ; the province of Brittany became part of the kingdom of France ; Granada
was taken from the Moors by the Spaniards (1492), and the Moors or Mahomedans were
driven out of Spain, 1499.
The Tudors.
"A warlike prince ascends the regal state,
A prince long exercised by Fate,
Long may he keep, though he obtains it late." — Dryden.
IN the last chapter we read how the line of the Plantagenet Kings
came to an end with the death of King Richard III. on Bosworth
Field. We read how the crown of England was picked up from a,
THE TUDORS.
269
hawthorn bush and placed upon the head of Henry of Richmond, who
was known from that day forward as Henry VII, King of England.
Richard III." j ' was the last of the Plantugencts. Henry VII.(l(i) was the
first of the Tudors. The Plantagenet kings, as we know, were the
descendants of Geoffrey of Anjou,(<J) father of King Henry II., who
married Queen Matilda in the year 1127. The battle of Bosworth was
fought in the year 1485 ; so we see that from the year 1164, when
Henry II., the first of the
Plantagenet kings, came tb
the throne, to the year 1485,
when Richard III., the last
of the Plantagenet kings,
died at Bosworth, was a
period of three hundred and
thirty-one years. And now
we leave the history of the
Plantagenet kings and come
to that of the Tudor Kings,
beginning with Henry VII.
What is meant by calling
Henry a Tudor King, and
what is meant by the Tudor
Period ? It is not difficult to
understand what is meant,
if we remember what we
read in the earlier part of
our history. It is not in the
reign of Henry VII. that we
first meet with the name of Tudor; but it is in the reign of Henry VI.,
sixty-two years before.
Queen Catherine, (37) the mother of Henry VI., had two husbands.
The first was King Henry V., who won the great victory of Agincourt ;
the second was a Welsh gentleman named Owen Tudor.'381 This Owen
Tudor was the grandfather of Henry VII., and Henry VII. of course
bore the name of his grandfather and father.
There are five kings and queens in English history who bore the
surname of "Tudor," and they came to the throne one after another.
The first was Henry VII.(4h) ; the second was Henry VIII.,(fl2' his son ; the
third was Edward VI.,("3) the son of Henry VIII. ; the fourth was Queen
Mary,(61) the daughter of Henry VIII. and the sister of Edward VI.;
1 The. numbers in brackets following names refer to the Genealogical Tables on pages 266
apd 803.
HENRY VII.
270 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the fifth and last was Queen Elizabeth, (ti2) the daughter of Henry VIII.
and the sister of Edward VI. and Mary.
These five— Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and
Elizabeth— are called the Tudor Sovereigns of England. The first
of them, Henry VII, came to the throne in 1485; the last of them,
Queen Elizabeth, died in the year 1603. It is the one hundred and
eighteen years between 1485 and 1603, which are known as the
Tudor Period; and it is about the events which took place during
this period that we are now going to read.
The King's Title.
"Possession is nine points of the law."
The first thing which King Henry had to do after he came to the
throne was to make sure that the same power which had given him
the crown should not deprive him of it. The House of Lancaster
had won the day at Bosworth Field, and Richard, the leader of the
House of York, lay dead upon the battlefield. But though Richard
was dead, there were other princes of the House of York, and there
were some who had as good or better right to the crown than Henry
of Richmond. The king knew well enough that unless he could
win over to his cause some of those who had fought so long for
the Yorkists, he would always be in danger of having to fight for
his crown, and perhaps, like Richard himself, of losing it in some
disastrous battle.
There was, however, a way by which the interests of the House
of Lancaster and the House of York might be joined together, and
the time had come when Englishmen were only too glad to put an
end to the cruel civil war which had so long raged in their country.
King Edward IV. had four children. Of these two were boys-
Edward and Richard — the little princes who had been so cruelly
murdered in the Tower by their uncle Richard III. But though
the little princes were dead, their elder sister — Elizabeth0*91 — was still
alive. It was the wish of nearly all Englishmen that Henry VII.
should marry the Princess Elizabeth, and thus unite the Houses of
York and Lancaster.
Henry was a wise man, and he saw clearly that nothing would
make him so strong and his position so sure as a marriage with
Elizabeth; and even before the battle of Bosworth he had made up
LAMBERT S/MXEL. 271
his mind to such a marriage. At the fame time, he was not at all
willing to admit that he himself had no right to the crown. He
thought that it would be a very bad thing for him if people were to
say that he owed his kingdom to his wife, and that he himself had
no right to it.
The first thing he did, therefore, was to call Parliament together,
and to get them to pass an Act in which they declared that "the in-
heritance of the crown should be, rest, remain, and abide in the most royal
person of our Sovereign Lord King Henry VII. and his heirs, perpetually
with the Grace of God so to endure, and in none other." This was really
very much the same thing as saying that Henry VII. was king because
he was king, that he had taken what he had got, and that he meant to
keep it by the same means which had helped him to obtain it.
It was the old story of " Might is Right"; but "might is right"
only so long as the strong man does not meet with a stronger ; and
all through his reign Henry found that, although his Parliament had
declared that he was king and " none other," there were people
who were quite ready to say that they had a better right than he,
and that they would overthrow by force the crown which had been
won by force.
It was not till the year after the battle of Bosworth that Henry
married the Princess Elizabeth of York. He wanted everybody to
understand that he claimed the crown for himself, because he was
descended from John of Gaunt(-5) and from King Edward III., and not
because he had married the daughter of King Edward IV. If he had
once declared that the crown ought to go to the family of Edward IV.,
he would soon have been in a great difficulty, for Elizabeth was
not the only one of Edward IV. 's family who might claim the throne.
We shall see how great a danger these relations of Edward IV.
proved, and how much the king had to fear from them.
Lambert Simnel ; or, Carpenter, King4, and Kitchen Boy,
" There's many a slip 'tiuixt cup and lip."
There were two great rebellions against King Henry during his reign.
The first was the rebellion of Lambert Simnel. Lambert Simnel. was a
young man, the s6"ri of a carpenter at Oxford. He was a handsome
youth with pleasant manners. It chanced that this boy — for Lambert
Simnel was only fifteen when we first hear about him — fell into the
272 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
hands of an Irish priest named Richard Simon, who took him over
to Ireland.
At that time Thomas Fitzgerald, the Earl of Kildare, was Governor, or,
as it was called, " The Lord Deputy," of Ireland. He was a great
friend of the Yorkists, and was quite ready to believe anything which
was likely to help the cause of the House of York and to injure the
cause of King Henry. It so happened, therefore, that when Richard
Simon told him something about the boy Simnel which, if it had
been true, would have been a very bad thing for King Henry, the
Earl of Kildare readily believed it, or, what was much the same thing,
he said that he believed it.
The story which Simon the priest told the Earl of Kildare was
a strange one. Edward IV. had had two brothers— George, Duke of
Clarence/4'"0 who was the elder, and Richard, Duke of Gloucester, afterwards
Richard IH.,(4G) who was the younger.
In the year 1478, the Duke of Clarence had quarrelled with his
brother, King Edward. King Edward imprisoned the unhappy duke
in the Tower of London, and there he was secretly put to death.
There is a story that he was drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine.
There was no doubt at all that the Duke of Clarence was dead ; but
he had left behind him a son named Edward, who was known as the
Earl of Warwick.
The Earl of Warwick was still alive, and Henry VII. had taken
care to have him shut up in the Tower and kept there. But now
Simon came and told the Earl of Kildare and his Yorkist friends that
the handsome boy whom they had brought with them was no other
than this same Edward, Earl of Warwick, son of the Duke of Clarence.
He had escaped, said Simon, from the Tower, and he now came to
ask all true friends of the House of York to take up his cause, and to
fight for him against Henry of Lancaster, the Usurper. J
It seems very unlikely that those who were the first to come for-
ward to help Lambert Simnel really believed that he was the Earl of
Warwick. All they wanted was to drive King Henry from the throne
and to get power for themselves. To do this, they were quite ready to
make use of Lambert Simnel, or of anybody else who would help their
cause. At the same time, it seems very likely that many people both
in England and in Ireland did really, for a time, believe in the pre-
tender. At any rate, a large number of Yorkists joined him.
1 As. a matter of fact, tven if it h^id been true that Lambert Simnel were really the Earl
of Warwick, he would have had no right to the crown as long as Elizabe'h, now the wife of
Henry VII., was a'ive. El'zabtth was the daughter of Edward IV., the elder brother of the
lAike of Clarence, and then fore came before the s.n of the Duke of Clarence in the succession
to the crown.
274 HISTORY OF ENGLAND'.
Margaret of Burgundy, who was the sister of Edward IV. and who
had a deep hatred for King Henry, sent over two thousand well-trained
German soldiers to help the so-called Earl of Warwick. The army
landed in Lancashire, and marched into England.
Meanwhile, King Henry did two wise things. In the first place, he
sent to the Tower, where the real Earl of Warwick was imprisoned,
and had the poor boy brought out and taken through the streets of
London so that everyone could see him. It was quite plain that if the
real Earl of Warwick were still in the Tower, the young man who had
just landed in Lancashire could not be the Earl of Warwick, but must
be a false pretender.
The other wise thing which Henry did was to lose no time in
sending an army against his new enemy. A battle was fought near
Newark, in Nottinghamshire, at a place called Stoke (1487). It was a
fierce fight, and the Germans sent by Margaret fought bravely ; but at
last they were overcome, and the victory rested with the royal troops.
Lambert Simnel himself was taken prisoner and brought to London.
Everyone thought, that now Henry had taken the usurper prisoner,
he would put him to death without mercy, and would probably send
most of the nobles who had helped him to the scaffold at the same
time. But Henry did a much wiser thing than this. One or two of
the chief nobles who had helped Lambert Simnel were put to death ;
the rest were compelled to pay large fines to the king.
Some of them were commanded to come to the king's court in
London. When they got there, they were invited to a great dinner
given by the king. As they sat at dinner, a serving-boy came round
bearing a wine-cup. When they looked at this serving-boy, they found
he had a face which they knew. It was Lambert Simnel, the false
Earl of Warwick, for whom they had been fighting, and on whose
account they had lost such large sums of money. He had been the
king's enemy ; but he had fallen so low that the king no longer feared
him — he only despised him. King Henry had given orders that
Lambert Simnel, who had claimed the crown of England, should
serve as a scullion in the royal kitchen. Such was the end of the
first rebellion.
275
Perkin Warbeck.
"Our intelligence comes swiftly to us, that James of Scotland late
hath entertained Perkin the counterfeit, with more than common grace
and respect ; nay, courts him with rare favours. " — From Ford's play of
"Perkin Warbeck."
"Saue King Richard the Fourth ! save thee, King of hearts ! The Cornish
blades are men of mettle; have proclaimed through Bodnam, and the
whole country, my sweet prince monarch of England : four thousand tall
yeomen, with bow and sword, already vow to live and die at the foot of
King Richard. " — From the same.
But this was not the only rebellion which took place in the reign of
Henry VII. Five years after the capture of Lambert Simnel (1492),
another pretender came forward. This was Peterkin, or Perkin Warbeck,
the son of a Jew living at Tournay, in Belgium. Warbeck was not a
boy like Lambert Simnel, but a handsome young man of great courage
and ready wit. He pretended to be the Duke of York.
In the story of Richard III.'s reign we read how that cruel king had
caused his two nephews, the sons of Edward IV., to be smothered in
the Tower of London. The elder of these little princes was Edward,
known in our history as "Edward V." The younger was Richard,
Duke of York. It was this Richard, Duke of York, whom Perkin pre-
tended to be. He said that the little prince had never been murdered,
but that he had escaped from the Tower and had taken refuge abroad.
Warbeck, like Lambert Simnel, found his first friends in Ireland. He
landed at Cork (1492), and, pleased with his friendly manners and with
his handsome face, the people of Cork readily believed what in their
hearts they wished to be true — namely, that he was Richard of York,
rightful King of England. Warbeck soon found other and more power-
ful friends. Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, helped him as she had
helped Simnel, because she hated Henry VII. The King of France
became his friend for a time, because he thought that he would weaken
England by befriending him.
James IV., King of Scotland, helped him because, in those days,
the Scots were nearly always ready to fight against England whenever
they got a chance. A few of the great nobles of the House of York
helped him because they wanted to get back their estates which Henry
had taken from them ; but the greater number of the people of
England neither helped Perkin Warbeck nor believed in him. And
276 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
thus Henry was, at length, able to overcome his new enemy as he had
overcome the old one.
Warbeck first tried to land in Kent ; but those of his friends who
got ashore were taken prisoners and hanged by the men of Kent.
Then he went on to Ireland, where he found many friends but few
helpers. He crossed over to Scotland, and here he got on better;
for James went so far as to march with an army into Northumberland.
Warbeck called on the people of Northumberland to rise and fight
for their king; but the people of Northumberland did not do anything
of the kind, and James had to march back again. When he got back,
SWORD PRESENTED BY HENRY VII. TO THE LOYAL CITY OF EXETER.
he told Perkin that he would rather he left Scotland, and so the poor
adventurer had to set sail once more. At last he landed in Cornwall,
and here it seemed as if he might have some chance of success.
Not long before, the men of Cornwall had had a great quarrel
with the king. They had complained of the taxes which Henry had
made them pay, and had at last refused to give any money at all.
No less than 16,000 Cornishmen started to march to London, headed
by Michael Joseph, a farrier of Bodmin, and Thomas Flammock, a
lawyer. The Cornishmen marched as far as Deptford in Kent, where
they were overtaken by the king's army and beaten after a fierce
battle. Joseph and Flammock were executed, and, as a punishment
for their rebellion, Henry laid still heavier taxes upon Cornwall.
When, therefore, Perkin Warbeck landed in Cornwall, he had little
doubt that the Cornishmen, angry with the king, would come to his
aid. Indeed, at first, many thousands joined him, and he got as far
as Exeter ; but the people of Exeter shut the gates of the city and stood
Ho iv THE KING GOT RICH. 277
fast against the invader. From this time Warbeck's good fortune left
him. He was overtaken by the King's army near Taunton, defeated,
and taken prisoner. Among the treasures at the Guildhall at Exeter
may still be seen the sword which king Henry gave to the loyal city,
for shutting its gates against the rebels.
Perkin Warbeck was for a time kept in prison, and perhaps his life
would have been spared, had it not been that a fresh plot was dis-
covered. The Earl of Warwick, who was shut up in the Tower,
tried to escape, and Warbeck was thought to have been helping
him. Determined to have no more plots, Henry caused both the
Earl of Warwick and Perkin to be tried ; they were both found guilty :
the earl had his head cut off, and Perkin was hanged (1499).
How the King Got Rich.
"In things a moderation keep;
Kings ought to shear, not shin their sheep.'1— Herrick.
The two rebellions about which we have just read show us plainly
that Henry VII. had some reason to feel unsafe on his throne. None
but a wise and prudent king could have escaped the dangers which
threatened Henry on every side. But Henry showed himself to be
wise and prudent — not only at home, but abroad. There were many
indeed who held that the king's wisdom sometimes -took the form
of trickery, and that he was very ready to deceive others in order
to gain an advantage for himself. But we must not forget that Henry
had many enemies, and that, in the long run, he kept England safe and
strong throughout the whole of his reign.
It is only by reading much longer histories than this that we can
ever learn to understand all the difficulties that Henry had to fight
against and to overcome in Europe. But it would not be right to
pass over these difficulties altogether.
At that time there were three great Powers — France, Spain, and The
Empire. The Empire meant, in the time of King Henry, that part of
Europe which was ruled over by The Emperor. It included a great
part of what is now Germany and Austria, the Netherlands (which are
now Holland and Belgium}, and parts of Italy.
There were nearly always disputes and quarrels going on between
France, Spain, and The Empire, each Power trying to get stronger by
278 HISTORY OF ENGLAND
taking something from the other two. When France went to war
with Spain, the King of France at once tried to get the Emperor to
help him, or, at any rate, to remain quiet, while the King of Spain, of
course, tried to make the King of France and the Emperor come to
blows. In the same way, whichever Powers were fighting, both sides
tried to get the help of England, and the side which did not get it,
generally threatened to make war upon England for helping its
enemies.
It was not a pleasant thing to be threatened in this way, and to
be forced to take part in other people's quarrels; and Henry spent a
great part of his reign in trying to keep out of war. To do this,
he had to make promises first to one side and then to the other,
and thus to keep free from trouble. He promised help to Spain
against France. The Spaniards were afraid to lose his friendship;
if they complained too much, he promised help and sent none. The
French thought twice before making war upon England, lest they
should turn an enemy who did them no harm into a real enemy who
would fight against them with all the power of England at its back.
And thus, throughout all his reign, Henry managed to hold the balance
even, and, above all, to keep out of war.
But this was not all. Not only did King Henry lose nothing by
war ; but he found a way of gaining something from the very danger
which threatened him. The people of England were more warlike
than the king himself, and they were always ready at that time to
fight the French. This is not wonderful ; for we must remember that
less than eighty years had passed since Henry V. had been king
not only of E-ngland, but of half of France also, and it was less
than fifty years since the last of the English troops had been driven
out of France.1
When Henry found that the people were set upon war, he said :
"Very well, you can have the war; but you must pay for it." The
people of England liked fighting, but they did not like paying taxes ;
and they soon found that under King Henry they would have more
paying to do than fighting. Henry collected very large sums of money
from the people, and at last crossed with his army into France. But
he had very little intention of fighting, and the war came to an end
almost as soon as it was begun. Then those who had paid the
taxes found that the king had got the better of them. He had put
a very large sum of money into his Treasury, and had spent very
little upon the war.
1 Calais and the two little towns of Hammes and Guisnes near it were the only parts of
France which still belonged to England at this tima-
280 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Indeed, Henry soon became far richer than any King of England
had ever been. There were several ways in which he collected money.
In the first place, he put heavy fines upon those who were suspected of
joining in the rebellions against him. Then he thought of another way.
During the Wars of the Roses, it had been the custom for great
nobles to go about attended by very large numbers of their retainers
and friends, who all wore the livery or uniform of the great noble whom
they followed, and who were ready to fight, and to break the law at the
order of their chief. These large bands of lawless men had become
a real danger; and now that so many of the great nobles had been
killed, the king felt himself strong enough to command those who were
left to give up the custom of keeping up their liveries.
Henry forbad the practice. At first the nobles tried to resist ; but
A "ROSE NOBLE ' OF HENRY VII.
the king was too strong for them. He punished those who broke the
new laws, and made them pay very heavy fines. One day the king paid
a visit to the Earl of Oxford, one of the greatest of the nobles. When
he came to the earl's castle, at Hedingham in Essex, the king found
that great preparations had been made to receive him. Long lines of
retainers in the earl's livery were drawn up on each side as the king
entered.
The King looked at the men in livery and said nothing; but as
he was leaving the castle at the close of his visit, he turned to the earl
and said : " I thank you, my lord, for your good cheer ; but I cannot
endure to have my laws broken in my sight. My attorney must speak
with you." The king's attorney did speak to the earl to some
purpose, and the earl had to pay a fine of £10,000 as a punishment
for trying to honour the king by breaking his laws.
Henry also collected large sums of money by means of what were
called Benevolences. A " Benevolence " means a thing that is given
WHAT THE RICH KING DID. WJ.TH His MONEY. 281
of a man's goodwill and pleasure, and not by compulsion. But
Henry's Benevolences seem to have had anather meaning. When
his ministers were in want of money, they drew up lists of those
they thought ought to pay. Then the Royal Commissioner went
to each person whose name was upon the list, and " invited him
to give of his own free will " what the king asked for.
Generally those who were thus invited gave what they were
asked to give ; for they knew quite well that those who did not
wish to give would very soon be made to give. Some of them com-
plained that they were not rich enough to pay what was asked ; but
Cardinal Morton, the king's minister, soon found an excellent way
of settling all questions of this kind. If a man lived in great state and
spent much money, the cardinal asked him for a " Benevolence " ;
" for," said he, " the splendour in which you live and the money which
you spend prove that you are a rich man, so pay at once."
If, on the other hand, a man lived very poorly, spending but little,
and making no show, then the cardinal had an equally ready answer.
" You spend so little, you are so saving and thrifty, that you must
needs have plenty of money in your coffers. The saving man is the
rich man, so pay at once." And so, either way, the king got his
money. The people called this trap of the cardinal's, Morton's Fork.
If a man escaped one prong, he was certain to fall upon the other.
What the Rich King did with His Money.
" The raising or keeping of a standing army within the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland in time of peace, unless it be with the
consent of Parliament, is against law" — From the "Mutiny Act" passed
every year by Parliament.
It might seem at first sight as if the fact that Henry collected a
great sum of money and became very rich, had but little to do with
the history of England in our own day ; but really it had a good deal
to do with it, as we shall see.
Most of us know something about the British army. There must
be few who have not seen some of our soldiers in their scarlet or
blue coats. The soldiers in our army join it for a fixed number of
years, and while they are in the army they serve in whatever part
of the world they are ordered to serve in obedience to the orders
of the King and Parliament. Our army is called a Standing Army
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
because it is called together not only in time of war, but is kep;
up in peace time, so that it may be ready to fight when a war comes.
But there was a time when there was no standing army in
England. Before the reign of Henry VII., when the King made
warr he used to send to all the vassals of the Crown to bid them
come and join him and fight under his banner. At the same
time he sent to all the great nobles and ccmmanded them to
bring their vassals also to join the royal army. Sometimes also
soldiers were paid, as they are now,,
to fight during the war. But when
the war was over, all those who had
fought in it went back to their homes
again, and in time of peace there was
no " Standing Army."
It was in the reign of Henry VII.
that there first began to be a change
in this matter. We have seen that
the King was often in danger, and
that he was threatened with the loss
both of his throne and of his life.
Henry felt that, unless he had always
somebody to guard him against his
enemies, he might one day be sur-
prised and killed by some friend of
the House of York, or by some pre-
tender like Lambert Simnel or Perkin
Warbeck. He therefore made up his
mind to have what is called a Body-
Guard — that is to say, a guard of
armed men whose duty it was to
attend him wherever he went, and to
protect him against all harm.
• These men were paid by the king,
aad they served him both in peace and in war. There were at first
very few of them ; but they were really the first "Standing Army"'
which England ever had. They were called the Yeomen of the Guard,,
If we want to know what a Yeoman of the Guard looked like, we
need only go as far as the Tower of London, and there we shall
see at this very ddy the Yeomen of the Guard, who wear the very
same kind of dress which the Yeomen of the Guard wore in the time
of King Henry VII., and whose duty it still is to guard the King or
Queen of Englard when the king or queen goes anywhere in state.
VkOMAN OF THE GUARD.
WHAT THE P.ICH KING DID IVITH His MONEY. 2^3
But before anyone can keep up a number of soldiers, one thing
is necessary. He must have money to pay them ; for soldiers, like
other people, will not serve unless they be paid. Henry knew this
well ; and it was for this reason that he took so much trouble to
save up money, to raise " Benevolences," and to make people pay
him fines.
Nowadays it is not the king who pays the army, but it is the
people of England who pay the taxes which are voted by Parliament.
If Parliament were to refuse to vote the money to pay the soldiers,
there would soon be no army; but Henry knew very well that " who
Pays the piper calls the tune" He wanted his soldiers to obey him,
and not to obey Parliament. He therefore called Parliament together
as little as he could help, and he managed to get nearly all the money
he wanted without asking Parliament for it. This made him a very
powerful king; for while he had soldiers who would do what he
told them, and as long as he could get money without asking
Parliament for it, he was really master of the country.
Sometimes Henry found that people refused to pay him the money
which he asked for, or disputed his right to make them pay it. To get
over this difficulty, he set up a new court which was called the Court,
of Star Chamber.1 The first duty of the Court of Star Chamber was to»
help Henry to put down the great nobles whom he feared, and to see'
that the Statutes against " Liveries " were observed. Those who dis-
obeyed were compelled to pay heavy fines, and thus the king got;
money without going to Parliament.
The judges of the Court of Star Chamber were generally friends,
of the king, and were quite willing to help him to get all the money he:
wanted. As time went on, the Court of Star Chamber often did very-
hard things, and came to be hated by the people of England, because
those who appeared before it did not receive a fair trial. When we
read further on in English history, we shall find that the Court of
Star Chamber at last became so hated that it was put an end to by
Parliament, and the kings of England were forbidden ever to set
up such a Court again.
1 It was called the Court of Star Chamber because the ceiling of ihe chamber at We.tminster
in which the judges sat was decorated with stais.
a 84 HISTORY OF
Some Royal Marriages.
"Hail, happy pair! kind Heaven's great hostages!
Sure pledges of a firm and lasting peace ;
Call't not a match, we that low style disdain
Nor will degrade it with a term so mean ;
A league it must be said
Where countries thus espouse, and nations wed."
John Oldliam: " On the Marriage of the Prince of Orange with the Lady Mary.
King Henry had four children—Arthur, ^ Margaret, '^ Henry, (52) and
Mary. f58) The name of Princess Margaret does not often appear in the
history of England ; but it is one that ought not to be forgotten, for it
is from Princess Margaret, daughter of Henry VII. that King Edward VII.
is descended. When she was nearly fourteen years old, Margaret was
married to James IV., ^ King of Scotland. It seemed a strange thing, at
a time when England and Scotland were so often at war with each
other, that an English princess should marry a Scottish king ; but
Henry wanted to make as many friends as he could, and he was glad
to get the friendship of his neighbour, the King of Scotland, by giving
him his daughter in marriage.
We shall see further on that the marriage between James and
Margaret did not prevent England and Scotland from fighting against
each other. But though the marriage did not bring peace at the time,
it really helped to bring about lasting peace between England and
Scotland.
James and Margaret had a son, James,((M> who became James V. of
Scotland on the death of his father at the battle of Flodden. James V.
had a daughter, Mary, (69). who became Queen of Scots. It was her son,
James VI. of Scotland, who afterwards became James I., King of England
and Scotland.'.™
When Margaret and James were married, some of Henry's friends
said to him : " What will happen if your sons die, or if they have no
children ? Will not the children of the King and Queen of Scotland
have a right to the throne 01 England, and will it not be a very bad
thing that this great kingdom of England should thus be added to the
kingdom of Scotland ? " " What you say may happen," replied
Henry; "but I do not think that, if it does, any harm will be done.
You may be sure that if England and Scotland are ever joined together,
SOJI/E ROYAL MARRIAGES.
the great a- d wealthy Kingdom of England will draw the smaller and
poorer Kingdom of Scotland to it, and it will be the King of England
who will be King of Scotland."
And this is what really took place ; for when King Henry's grand-
children died, the crown of England went to the King of Scotland;
but the King of Scotland came to London and was crowned there as
King of England
and Scotland,
and the Parlia-
ment of England
and Scotland is
now held in
London and not
in Edinburgh. So
the wise King
Henry was right.
The king's
eldest son was
Prince Arthur.
Henry hoped to
make another
friend by marry-
ing Arthur. The
King and Queen
of Spain at that
time were called
Ferdinand and
Isabella. They
had a daughter
named Cathar-
ine,'"'1 and Henry
proposed that
Arthur should
marry Catharine.
Ferdinand and
Isabella agreed,
and Catharine came over to England. After waiting a long time
while King Henry and her parents were disputing as to how much
money should be paid by Spain as a dowry or wedding gift on the
marriage of the princess, Catharine was married to Arthur. But
within five months of the marriage Arthur cjied, ancl Henry's plan
seemed all undone again,
MAP SHOVVING BRITTANY AND THE NORTHERN AND
WESTERN COASTS OF FRANCE. (See page 286.)
286 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
But the king would not so easily give up his hope of winning the
friendship of Spain by marriage. First he offered to marry Catharine
himself ; but as the king was forty-five years old and his daughter-in-
law, Catharine, was only sixteen, the young Princess's mother very
naturally did not like the match.
Then Henry hit on another plan, and he got Ferdinand and Isabella
to consent to their daughter marrying Prince Henry/52' her brother-in-law.
Prince Henry afterwards became King Henry VIII., and we shall see
that this marriage brought many troubles with it, and did very little to
secure for England the friendship of Spain.
Changes Abroad.
"From the dim landscape roll the clouds auuay;
The Christians have regained their heritage —
Before the Cross has waned the Crescent's ray. "
Scott : " Vision of Don Roderick."
Two things "happened during Henry's reign, in Europe, which cannot
be passed over. The first was the Expulsion of the Moors from Spain.
At one time the whole of Europe had been in danger of being overrun
by the Turks, wh6 were followers of Mahomed, or, as we call them,
Mahomedans. After many fierce battles, the Mahomedans had
been driven out of a great part of Europe; but they still remained
in Spain, despite all the efforts of the Spaniards to turn them out.
It was in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella that the Spaniards,
after much fierce fighting, at length succeeded in driving the last of
the Moors — for so the Mahomedans who had come into Spain were
called — out of their country (1499).
The second thing specially to be remembered has to do with
another part of Europe. If we look at the map we shall see a great
piece of France marked Brittany. Up to the reign of Henry VII.
Brittany had been a separate Province, or Duchy, governed by the
Dukes of Brittany, and not under the French king. In the reign of
Henry VII. Brittany for the first time became part of France, for
Anne, Duchess of Brittany, married Philip, King of France ; and thus
the kingdom of France and the duchy of Brittany were joined
together, and have remained part of one country ever since.
It is easy to see how important this change was to England.
HENRY VII. 'S CHAPEL, WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
a 88 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The map shows us Calais, which belonged to England, and shows
that the whole of the coast of the Channel, from St. Malo to south
of Nantes, was under the Duchy of Brittany. It was only the bit
between St. Malo and Calais that belonged to France. But when
France and Brittany became united, the whole of the French coast,
from Calais to Bayonne, was for the first time governed by one king,
who was generally the enemy of England.
Ever since the time of Henry VII., England, whenever she has
gone to war with France, has had an enemy's coast facing her shores
foe more than 600 miles. The great naval harbour and fortress of
Brest is in Brittany.
King Henry died in 1509, in the twenty-fourth year of his reign,
at the age of fifty-three. There is one thing by which he will always
be remembered, and that is the beautiful chapel at the end of West-
minster Abbey, which was built by him, and which is called after
him, " Henry the Seventh's Chapel."
CHAPTER XXXVI.
HENRY VIII. AND ENGLAND AT WAR.
1509-1547.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII.
Henry II., King of France, son of Francis I.,
d I559-
Ferdinand II., King of Castile and Aragon,
d. 1512.
Ferdinand V., King of Spain, 1516.
Charles L, grandson of Ferdinand V., also
reigned as " the Emperor Charles V."
Henry VIII., King of England, second son
of Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York,
b. 1491, became king 1509, d. 1547.
Wives of Henry VIII. :—
Catharine of Aragon, m. 1509, d. 1536.
Anne Boleyn, m. 1532, executed 1536.
Jane Seymour, m. 1536, d. 1537.
Anne of Cleves, m. 1540, d. 1557.
Catharine Howard, m. 1540, executed
1542.
Catharine Parr, widow of Lord Lati-
rmr, m. 1543.
Mary, daughter of Henry and Catharine
of Aragon, afterwards Queen of Eng-
land, b. 1516.
Elizabeth, daughter of Henry and Anne
Boleyn, b. 1533, afterwards Queen
of England.
Edward, son of Henry and Jane Seymo-'r,
b. 1537, afterwards King pf Eng-
land.
LOUIS XII., King of France, d. 1515.
Francis j(f Ktog pf Franw, d. 1547,
Maximilian L, Emperor, d. 1519.
James IV , King of Scotland, killed in battle
at Flodden, 1513.
Margaret Tudor, wife of James IV., d. 1541,
James V., King ot Scotland, d, 1542.
Mary, daugh.er of Janes V., afterwards
Sueen of Scotland, b. 1542,
., Pope, d. 1513.
Leo X., Pope, d. 1522.
Adrian VI, Pope, d. 1533,
Clement VII., Pope, d. 1534.
Paul III., Pope.
Soliman the Magniflcent, Sultan of Turkey,
1520.
Thomas Wolsey, afterwards Cftrdjna.l
Wolsey, d. 1530.
289
Cranmer, Archbishop of Canter-
bury.
Thomas Cromwell, executed 1540-.
Sir T&Omas More, Speaker of the House
of Commons, and Lord Chancellor,
executed 1535.
an of t. aus, . 1519.
Cardinal Beaton, Archbishop of St. Andrews,
.
John Colet, Dean of St. Paul's, d.
,
Regent of Scotland, assassinated
1546.
Martin Luther, the great German Reformer,
d. 1546.
Calvin, the great French Reformer, d. 1564.
John Knox, follower of Calvin.
William Tyi^dal, translator of the Bible,
burned in the Netherlands, 1536.
Miles Coverdale, assistant of Tyndal.
Great Painters:—
Leonardo da Vinci (Florentine), d.
1520.
Raphael (Roman), d. 1520.
Perugino (Roman), d. 1524.
Albert Dlirer (German), d. 1528.
CorreggiO (Italian), d. 1534.
Holbein (German), d. 1543.
Michael AngelO (Florentine).
Titian (Venetian).
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII.
1509. Henry VIII. marries Catharine of
Aragon, June 3rd.
St. Paul's School founded by Dr. Colet.
1512. Henry declares war against France.
1513. Henry invades France. Battle of
"The Spurs."
Scottish invasion of England. Battle
of Flodden.
1514. Peace between England and France.
Mary (sister of Henry) marries Louis
XII.
Margaret (sister of Henry) marries
Douglas, Earl of Angus.
Wolsey made Archbishop of York.
1515. Mary (Henry's sister) marries Charles
Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.
Wolsey created cardinal, papal legate,
and chancellor.
1516. Birth of Princess Mary.
1520. Field of the Cloth of Gold.
Magellan passed through I he Straits
which have since borne his name.
1521. Duke of Buckingham executed for hij.,h
treason.
The title of ' ' Defender of Faith " given
to Henry by Leo X.
1522. War with France and Scotland.
First circumnavigation of the globe
(in 1,154 days, by Magellan's expedi-
tion).
1523. Parliament assembled. Sir T. More
Speaker.
1524. Peru discovered by Pizarro and
Almagro. *•"
1525. Henry tries to raise money without
authority of Parliament.
1526. Publication of Tyndal's version of the
New Testament.
Soliman the Magnificent, Sultan of
Turkey, takes Hungary.
1520. Fall of Wolsey. More Chancellor.
Cranmer advises Henry to obtain the
opinions of the Universities as to
divorce with Catharine.
The Turks defeated before Vienna.
1530. Death of Wolsey, November 28th, at
the age of 59.
1531. Henry divorces Catharine.
1532. Henry marries Anne Boleyn.
Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury.
Sir T. More resign? chancellorship,
K
1533. Appeals to Rome prohibited by Parlia-
ment. Cranmer declares Henry's
marriage with Catharine illegal
Pope declares Cranmer's proceedings
null and void.
Elizabeth born at Greenwich, Septem
ber jth.
Tyndal's translation of the New Testa-
ment publicly burned by Tonstal,
Bishop of London.
1534. Parliament settles succession on Henry's
second marriage.
Parliament declares Henry supreme
head on earth of the English Church.
Revolt of the Earl of Kildare in Ireland
put down.
Canada discovered by Cartier, a French
navigator.
1535. Sir T. More beheaded, July 6th, aged
The Pope excommunicates Henry, and
lays England under an interdict.
Tyndal and Miles Coverdale publish a
more correct version of the bible.
Tobacco first known in Europe.
1536. Catharine dies at Kimbolton, aged 50.
Parliament passes an Act for the sup-
pression of minor monasteries : 376 of
them granted to the king.
Anne Boleyn beheaded.
A new English version of the Scriptures
ordered to be printed.
Henry marries Jane Seymour. Parlia-
ment settles succession on the children
of Henry and Jane.
California discovered by Cortes.
X536 7- " The Pilgrimage of Grace."
1537. Prince Ed ward born. Jane Seymour dies
1538. General suppression of monasteries.
1539" Parliament confirms surrender of
monasteries. English translation of
Bible allowed to b« freely circulated
Cranmer's Bible published.
1540. Henry marries Anne of Cleves. Crom
well disgraced and executed, Jnlv
28th. Anne of Cleves divorced.
Henry marries Catharine Howard.
Cherry-trees brought from Flanders
and planted in Kent.
1542. Catharine Howard beheaded. Scottish
9rmy defeated at Solway,
290
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Mary, Queen of Scots, born December
7th. Her father, James V., dies
December i4th.
Cardinal Beaton made Regent of
Scotland.
Henry takes title of King of Ireland.
Parliament makes Ireland a kingdom.
1543. Henry marries Catharine Parr.
1544. War with Scotland.
1545. French attempt 1.0 ianci in England,
but are repulsed.
1546. Death of Luther, aged 62, February
i8th.
Assassination of Cardinal ELaton, May
28th.
1547. Henry dies, at the age of 56, January
28th.
King* Harry.
Every inch a King.'
We now come to the story of Henry VIII. {52) and his long reign. King
Henry VIII. is a well-known figure in English history. Whatever
may have been his faults, and he had many, there can be no doubt
that.by far the greater number of the people in England who lived
in his time loved him, and thought him a great king. King Harry,
Bluff King Hal, are the names by which he went.
He came to the throne when he was a mere youth. He was not
quite eighteen years old when his father died. Fair, ruddy, strongly-
built, and active, he seemed not only to his English subjects, but to
foreigners, the finest-looking man of all the kings of Europe.
The king, too, had a merry mind. He was fond of sport, fond
of exercise, fond of good living, fond of show : these were just the
things to make him popular with the people. It is true that he was
also very fond of having his own way, and that he was selfish and
overbearing; but those who suffered most from his self-will were
those who stood nearest to him — his ministers and the great noblee.
Many of these were put to death by the king's orders, and many of
them lost their fortunes because they did not please him.
But, to tell the truth, the common people of England were often
not sorry to see the great nobles who lived among them lose their
heads or their properties, and as long as King Henry let the people
go their own way, and did not tax them too heavily, they were
always ready to call out "God save his Highness!" and to praise
a King of England who showed himself so strong and so determined.
We shall see, however, that when King Henry did try to take
too much money out of the pockets of the Commons, they were as
ready to quarrel with him as any of the nobles; but this happened
very seldom, and it is true to say that to the day of his death Henry
was beloved by far the greater number of his people. .
u KIKG HARRY?
291
We know very well what the king was like. Indeed, he is the
first King of England whose face is really familiar to us. It was in
his day that one of the first and one of the greatest portrait-painters
of modern times began to paint pictures in England. Hans Holbein,
the German,
has left us pic-
tures of Henry
which, beyond
all doubt, show
us the king
just as he ap-
peared in his
own royal
court of Wind-
sor.
We often
hear King
Henry spoken
of as the Fat
King: and
very plump he
certainly was.
WTe can see in
Holbein's pic-
ture the rings
half sunk in
his fat fingers.
His cheeks
were fat, his
figure was
large, and as
he grew older
he became
somewhat too
stout. His
HENRY VIII.
(From the pa'mingly Holbein, in the possession of the Earl of Warwick.}
eyes were
small, and not
very hand-
some to our way of thinking nowadays; but there seems no doubt
that though it is the fashion to flatter kings and great men, those
who saw King Henry and who spoke of him as a dignified and hand-
some prince, gave expression to the general opinion of the time.
292 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The king had many faults. He did many things which seem
very hateful to us now ; though it is not always easy for us to judge
about the right and wrong of things which happened more than
three hundred years ago. But one thing is certain about King
Henry — he had a very strong will, and not only that, but he was
strong enough to get his will carried out. Some of the greatest
men who ever lived in England were Henry's ministers. These
men rose to great power, and it seemed as if they could rule all
England, and King Henry as well. But when they came to oppose
the king, each of them in turn found out that he had met with a
stronger man than himself. They lost first of all their offices, and
then their lives.
Nor was it only the king's ministers who found that Henry was
a dangerous man to anger. King Henry reigned thirty-eight years,
and during that time he was married no less than six times. His
first wife, Catharine of Aragon,(5l) a Spanish princess, he divorced; his
second wife, Anne Boleyn, 53; an English lady, was put to death by her
husband's command because she offended him ; his third wife, Jane
Seymour, (54) also an English lady, died within two years of her marriage.
His fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, a Dutch princess, he divorced. His
fifth, Catharine Howard, the daughter of an English duke, fared no better
than his second, for she too was beheaded by order of the king. His
last wife, Catharine Parr, a daughter of an English knight, had the good
fortune to outlive him.
It is the story of this strange king that we are now going to read.
It is a story which is the more interesting because it took place at
a time when many great changes were going on in England, and when
many great men and women were living who have become famous in
the history of our country.
Foreign Friends and Foes— The Battle of the "Spurs."
"For those that fly may fight again,
Which he can never do that's slain."
Butler: " Hudibras."
The reign of Henry VIII. was a long one, lasting no less than thirty-
eight years. Every part of it was marked by events which were of
great interest and importance in the history of England. Tt is not
easy in a {short book Uke thi§ to give, a full account of all that took
FOREIGN FRIENDS AND FOES. 293
place ; but we must be content to read about the most important
tilings, and about those which have had most to do with making
England what it is. For this reason we must give only a short space
to matters which took up a long time, and which occupied much
attention in the early years of Henry's reign.
These matters are those which concern the dealings of the king
and his ministers with the other Kings of Europe, matters which we
should now call questions of Foreign Policy. At the time when
Henry VIII. came to the throne, there were three great Powers in
Europe : France, Spain, and The Empire.1
A fourth Power was England, which, however, was not thought by
any of the other three to be on an equal rank with them, and which
indeed was not yet as powerful as any of them. The other nations of
Europe were soon to find out that the best of them had found its
match in the Island Kingdom ; but at this time they thought of it
only as a useful ally which might help a friend with a round sum of
money, and with two or three thousand soldiers who would be hard
to beat when they once took to fighting. Henry VII. had done some-
thing to show the Emperor and the Kings of France and Spain that
England was a country to be reckoned with, and Henry VIII. was
not the man to give up anything that his country had won.
He eagerly followed in the footsteps of his father, and hastened to
join in the rivalry between the sovereigns of Europe. It is hard in our
days to understand the way in which arrangements were made between
great countries in the days of Henry VIII. For, indeed, in those days
there was no trick, no deceit, no stratagem, which the ministers of the
great countries of Europe were not ready to practise. Nor must it be
forgotten that the kings and emperors themselves often took the chief
part in making bargains and treaties, and if they did not take part
themselves, they sent their favourite ministers with secret orders to
act for them.
It is most wearisome to read through all the accounts of the plotting
and bargaining which went on between the Kings of Europe in the
first years of Henry VIII. 's reign. France, Spain, and The Empire
each wanted to be master of Europe, and each in turn, in order to
become master, tried to ruin the other.
At one time France sought the aid of Spain against The Empire,
at another time Spain and The Empire joined forces against France,
and each nation in turn tried by promises and threats to win England
to its side, or to prevent her from joining its enemies. It often
happened that while the King of France was promising aid and
1 See page 277.
294
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
assistance to the King of England, he was secretly making just the
same promises to the King of England's enemies ; while, on the other
hand, there is little doubt that the King of England never lost an
opportunity of paying the King of France back in his own coin, and
of deceiving him in his turn.
The plotting, the falsehoods, the battles, the peaces, which fill the
pages of the history
of this time, have
been for the most
part forgotten ; but
some of them we
must not forget
because they made
a great difference
to the history and
fortunes of our
country.
It must be
borne in mind
that at the be-
ginning of his
reign, Henry VIII.
was naturally the
friend and ally of
the King of Spain,
for he had mar-
ried his brother
Arthur's widow,
Catharine, who we
know was the
daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, the King and Queen of Spain.
The marriage of Henry with Catharine is a very important thing
to remember for two reasons. The first reason is that Henry, as
the son-in-law of Ferdinand of Spain, naturally became for a time
the enemy of Louis XII., King of France. The second reason is
a more important one still, because, as we shall see, it led to great
troubles, for the disputes, which afterwards arose as to whether the
marriage were legal or not, led to great events in the history of
England.
Why is it so important in our history that Henry, at the beginning
of his reign, was an enemy of France ? It is important for two
reasons. In the first place it led to a short war with France, during
CATHARINE OF ARAGON.
FLODDEN FIELD, 295
which a rather odd battle was fought. This battle took place near
Terouenne, and is known as The Battle of the Spurs (1513).
It is called by this odd name because there was more running away
than fighting, and the Frenchmen used their "spurs" a great deal
more than they used their swords. It seems that the French cavalry
were seized with a panic and rode off, despite the efforts of their
officers to stop them. The alarm once given, it was impossible to
stop the flight. The whole French army was thrown into confusion,
and some of the most famous of the French nobles and soldiers
were taken prisoners. Among them was the famous Chevalier Bayard,
who was known throughout France for his bravery and gallantry,
and who earned for himself the title of Bayard, the knight without fear
and without reproach.
But out of the enmity between England and France there came
a much fiercer and more important battle than the Battle of the Spurs,
namely, the Battle of Flodden Field, in which the armies of England
and Scotland met on the gth of September, 1513, and in which no less
than 6,000 Englishmen and 9,000 Scots lost their lives.
Flodden Field.
"Still from the sire the son shall hear
Of the stem strife and carnage drear
Of Flodden's fatal field,
Where shivered was fair Scotland's spear,
And broken was her shield /"
Scott: "Marmion."
How was it that the battle of Flodden sprang from the quarrel
between Henry and Louis XII. ? It came about in this way.
While the English army, under King Henry, was besieging the
town of Terouenne, in France, James IV.,(56> King of Scotland, managed
to pick a quarrel with England. There was very little really to quarrel
about. The chief matter was a complaint that Henry had refused
to give up the jewels which his father, Henry VII., had left to Queen
Margaret of Scotland. But James, a brave but rash man, did ^not
need much of an excuse for going to war with the old enemies of
his country, especially at a time when England was fighting against
the French, who had so long been the friends of Scotland. James sent
a message to King Henry ordering him to leave France ; and he did
more, for he sent three thousand Scotsmen to help King Louis.
296 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
King Henry sent the Scottish messenger back with a very flat
refusal, but before the messenger could reach King James, the Scottish
troops crossed the Border, plundering and burning. A few days later
the king himself at the head of a great Scottish army, which was said
to number no less than a hundred thousand men, marched south from
Edinburgh, and on the 22nd of August, 1513, crossed the Tweed,
and a few days later fixed his camp on the side of Flodden Hill, which
lies on the Cheviot Mountains. In front of him flowed the River Till.
It was not long before an English army came out to stop his
further march. The Earl of Surrey called upon
the northern counties to arm. His force was
" Standards on standards, men on men,
. . . sweeping o'er the Gothic arch."
TWISEL BRIDGE.
soon joined by Lord Thomas Howard, High Admiral of England, with
5,000 men. With an army numbering 25,000 in all, he advanced to
Flodden. He saw at once that it was impossible to attack the Scottish
army in front, for the deep waters of the Till would check the
advance of the troops. He therefore decided to try to draw King
James from the position which he had taken up.
To do this he marched his army across the Till, passing by a
single narrow bridge. James has been much blamed for not attacking
the English while they were crossing the river. Whatever may have
been the reason for his failing to do so, it is certain that Surrey's army
was allowed to cross without interference, and soon the Scots, to
their dismay, saw the English army between them and their own
country.
In the wonderful account which Sir W'alter Scott gives of the battle
FLO D DEN FIELD. 297
in his great poem Marmion, the march of the English army across the
Till is thus described : —
" From Flodden ridge
The Scots beheld the English host
Leave Barmore Wood, their evening post,
And heedful watched them as they crossed
The Till by Twisel Bridge.
" High srght it is, and haughty, while
They dive into the deep defile ;
Beneath the caverned cliff they fall,
Beneath the castle's airy wall.
By rock, by oak, by hawthorn fee,
Troop after troop are disappearing ;
Troop after troop their banners rearing ;
Upon the eastern bank you see,
Still pouring down the rocky den,
Where flows the sullen Till,
And rising from the dim-wood glen,
Standards on standards, men on men,
In slow succession still.
"And, sweeping o'er the Gothic arch,
And pressing on, in ceaseless march,
To gain the opposing hill.
That morn, to many a trumpet clang,
Twisel ! thy rocks deep echo rang ;
And many a chief of birth and rank,
Saint Helen ! at thy fountain drank.
Thy hawthorn glade which now we see
In spring-tide bloom so lavishly,
Had then from many an axe its doom,
To give the marching columns room.
" And why stands Scotland idly now,
Dark Flodden ! on thy airy brow,
Since England gains the pass the while
And struggles through the deep defile ?
What checks the fiery soul of James ?
Why sits that champion of the dames
Inactive on his steed,
And sees, between him and his land,
Between him and Tweed's southern strand,
His host Lord Surrey lead ? "
The Scots could now no longer resist the temptation to attack
the enemy. King James ordered the camp to be burnt, and under
cover of the smoke he swept downwards on Surrey's army.
K*
298 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
" From the sharp ridges of the hill,
All downward to the banks of Till,
Was wreathed in sable smoke.
Volumed and fast, and rolling far,
The cloud enveloped Scotland's war,
As down the hill they broke ;
Nor martial shout, nor minstrel tone,
Announced their march ; their tread alone.
At times one warning trumpet blown,
At times a stifled hum,
Told England, from his mountain-throne
King James did rushing come.
Scarce could they hear or see their foes,
Until at weapon-point they close."
The battle which followed was long and fierce, but at last fortune
decided in favour of the English. King James himself was left dead
upon the field, surrounded by the bravest of his army, who had
given up their lives in the vain attempt to save their king. No
less than 9,000 Scots fell in the battle, and among the dead were
members of the noblest families of Scotland.
The English did not follow up the victory, but were content
that Scotland was now compelled to give up helping the French,
But the war between France and England did not last long. At
that time, though friendships were quickly broken, they were quickly
made again. Louis, King of France, soon found means to separate
Henry from his ally the Emperor, and a peace was made between
England and France in August, 1514. As a condition of the peace,
Henry gave his beautiful sister Mary Tudor,(58) then only sixteen years
old, as a bride to the old King of France. Happily, Louis lived
only a very short time after his marriage, and Mary at once married
Charles Brandon,(60) Duke of Suffolk, whom she had always loved.
299
CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE GREAT CARDINAL AND THE KING'S DIVORCE.
Cardinal Wolsey.
" This Cardinal,
Though from a humble stock, undoubtedly
Was fashioned to much honour from his cradle.
He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one;
Exceeding wise, fair-spoken, and persuading ;
Lofty and sour to them that loved him not;
But, to those men that sought him, sweet as summer,'
And though he were unsatisfied in getting, —
Which was a sin— yet in bestowing, madam,
He was most princely. Euer witness for him
Those twins of learning, that he raised in you,
Ipswich and Oxford."— Shakespeare: " King Henry VIII"
IT was during this time of wars and treaties, when Henry was
making promises to the other sovereigns of Europe, and breaking
them as often as he made them, that a great man rose into fame in
England. This was Thomas Wolsey, whom we usually speak of as
Cardinal Wolsey.
It cannot be doubted that Wolsey was one of the greatest men
of the time in which he lived, and his greatness was admitted not
only in England, but throughout Europe. He was born at Ipswich
in the year 1471. His father was a wool merchant, and must have
been well off, for he sent his son to college at Oxford, where
young Wolsey distinguished himself. He entered the Church, and
soon became employed by Henry VII., who sent him on important
business to the Continent. But it was not till Henry VIII. became
king that WTolsey began to rise rapidly. The new king found in
him the most agreeable of companions and the wisest of counsellors.
No reward seemed too great for the king's favourite, and from one
high office he passed on to another.
Soon Wolsey became the wealthiest and the most powerful man
in England next to the king. ln 1515 the Pope made him a. Cardinal,
300
HISTORY OF ENCLA ^ n.
and it seemed at length as if Wolsey had obtained all that even he
could ever wish for. Wherever the king went, Wolsey accompanied
him. Treaties were made by the advice of the Cardinal, and some-
times his name was put on treaties by the side of that of the king,
as if he were indeed king himself, and not a subject. The most
wonderful stories are told of his wealth and of the splendid state in
which he lived.
Here is an account
of the great man's
household, taken from
the Chronicle of King
Henry VIII. :—" You
shall understand that
he had in his hall con-
tinually three boards,
kept with their several
principal officers, that
is to say, a ' steward '
which was always a
priest ; a ' treasurer ' a
knight; and a 'con-
troller ' an esquire ;
also a ' cofferer ' being
a doctor; three * mar-
shalls ' ; three ' yeomen
ushers ' in the hall,
besides two 'grooms,'
and 'almoners.' Then
in the hall kitchen, two
' clerks of the kitchen,'
a 'clerk controller,' a
'surveyor of the dresser,'
a ' clerk of the spicery,' the which together kept also a continual mess
in the hall.
" Also in his hall kitchen he had of ' master cooks ' two, and of
other ' cooks,' ' labourers,' and ' children of the kitchen,' twelve
persons ; four ' yeomen of the silver scullery,' two ' yeomen of the
pastry,' with two other ' pastelers ' under the yeomen. Then in his
prime kitchen a ' master cook,' who went daily in velvet or in satin,
with a chain of gold."
And so the list goes on for a whole long page of the Chronicle,
including, among many other officers and servants, a " yeoman of the
CARDINAL WOLSEY.
(.From the painting by Holbein.)
302 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
barge," a "master of the horse," a "master of the children," "cross-
bearers," " singers," " cup-bearers," " carvers," a " herald," a " keeper
of the tents," an "apothecary," a "physician," sixteen "stable
grooms," twenty-four " waiters," sixteen " chaplains," a " chaff-wax,"
four " minstrels," and a " clerk of the green cloth."
When, in the year 1520, King Henry met Francis I., King of France,
near Calais, Wolsey was the foremost figure among the English who
accompanied the king. The meeting itself was one that was long
remembered. It is known in history as The Field of the Cloth of Gold,
so splendid -were the dresses which were worn by the two kings and by
the gorgeous train of nobles who accompanied them. The very tents
in which the two kings and their followers lived during the whole time
of the festivities were of cloth of gold and of embroidery. There are
pictures which give us some idea of this famous meeting between the
kings of England and France, and both in the pictures and in the
written accounts it is always the great Cardinal Wolsey who takes
the foremost place after the king.
But though Wolsey was rich, he was certainly generous with his
money. He built a splendid palace at Hampton Court, near London,
and afterwards gave it to the king. If we want to know what
Hampton Court Palace was like, we have only to take the train from
Waterloo Station in London to Hampton Court, a journey of not more
than forty-five minutes ; and we can see for ourselves the great and
beautiful building.
Nor is Hampton Court the only mark of Wolsey 's generosity. In
his own town of Ipswich he founded a Grammar School, which exists to
this day. . At Oxford he built the great and beautiful college first called
Cardinal College, and now known as Christ Church. Nor was this all.
He did much to assist learned men, and to help on education. It is
clear that Wolsey made a wise use of his wealth; but, unhappily for
himself, like many another man, he was never contented with the
success he had won while there was still anything more to win. He
had been made Bishop, Cardinal, Chancellor, but there was one thing
more he had set his heart on, and that was to be made Pope. It was
this ambition which at last brought about his downfall.
The Fall of Wolsey.
"0 Cromwell, Cromwell!
Had I but served my God with half the zeal
{ served my king, He would not in my age
Have left me naked to my enemies."
Shakespeare: " King Henry VIII."
To understand how it was that Wolsey's wish to become Pope led
to his downfall we must go back to the history of King Henry himself.
It must be remembered that Henry had married, when he was quite
young, Catharine of Aragon, daughter of the -King and Queen of Spain.
For many years the king and queen had lived together in happiness,
or, at any rate, without quarrelling. They had only one child, a
girl, who was born in 1516, and who was called Mary.(58)
They had no son, and this made Henry discontented, for he longed
for a son to come after him on the throne ; and as time went on, Henry
grew tired of his queen, and wished to put her away, and marry in her
stead Anne Boleyn, one of Queen Catharine's ladies-in-waiting. At
that time it was only possible for a man to put away his wife, or, as
we call it, to get a divorce, by leave of the Pope, and unless Henry
could get the leave of the Pope, he could not get rid of Catharine.
The king asked the Pope to give him leave, saying that there was
a good reason for a divorce, because it was against the laws of the
Church that a man should marry his brother's widow.
Now Henry himself had married his brother's widow, for Catharine
had been married to Arthur before she married Henry. It was true
that Henry himself had been anxious to marry Catharine, and had got
the Pope's special leave to do so at the time. But now all this seemed
to be forgotten, and he was only too glad of an excuse which would
enable him to get what he wanted. He decided to send Cardinal
Wolsey to' Rome to get the consent of the Pope, but when Wolsey got
to Rome he found himself in a very hard position.
The Pope, who was named Clement VII., was at that time very
much afraid of the Emperor Charles V., who had a great many soldiers
in Italy, and could have done much harm to the Pope if he wished.
But Charles was the nephew of Queen Catharine, and, naturally
enough, he was very angry with King Henry for wishing to divorce
HISTORY OP ENGLAND.
his aunt. VVolsey would have been glad to serve his king and to get
the Pope's consent, but at the same time he hoped some day to become
Pope himself, and he did not therefore like to offend Clement. The
Pope, in his turn, feared to offend the Emperor Charles ; and thus it
happened that Wolsey had at last to come back to King Henry and to
tell him that he had failed in his errand, and that the Pope had refused
to agree to the
divorce.
From that
day Henry de-
termined that
he would be rid
of Wolsey. As
long as Wolsey
would serve him
and help him to
get his way, he
was willing to
give him power
and wealth; but
now that the
Cardinal had
failed to gain
what his master
longed for,
Henry was
ready to for-
sake him and
ruin him.
It was not
long before
Henry found
excuses for
showing his dis-
pleasure. He
first charged
Wolsey with breaking the law by coming into the kingdom of England
as a servant of the Pope, and not of the King of England. It is true
that by the law of England the Pope has no authority in our Island, but it
must not be forgotten that it was Henry himself who had welcomed
Wolsey, when he first came, as the Pope's Legate or Ambassador, and
that he had been glad enough to make use of his services.
CLEMENT VII.
^ From the painting by Titian. )
' THE DEFENDER OF THE FAITH" 305
In.lfcd, th<> r.harge was only an excuse. The king \vitndrew his
favour from the Cardinal. In October, 1529, Wolsey was forced to
give up the Givat Seal, which was the sign of his office as Lord
Chancellor of England. He sought to win back Henry's favour by
giving up to him all his wealth, houses, and estates, and asking leave
to go and live in his own bishopric. But the king would show no
mercy. Parliament joined in the attack upon the fallen minister, and
brought charges against him.
At last, after he had lost nearly all his property, Wolsey received
a pardon for the crimes he was declared to have committed, and he
was allowed to live at Richmond, near London. But he had many
enemies, and soon the king's anger was stirred up against him again.
In November, 1530, he was arrested in York, by order of the king, on
a charge of high treason. An order was given to the Earl of North-
umberland to bring him to London, but on the way Wolsey fell sick.
Worn out, and at the point of death, he reached Leicester Abbey,
where he was received by the abbot and monks.
Broken down in health and in spirit, he felt that death was ap-
proaching. It is said that his dying words were words of loyalty and
good advice to the king who had treated him so unjustly, for he felt to
the last that Henry had been most unjust to him. " Had I," said the
dying cardinal, " but served my God as diligently as I have served my
king, He would not have given me over in my grey hairs. But this
is the just reward that I must receive for my diligent pains and study,
not regarding my service to God, but only to my king." Thus died
this great man (1530), who, with all his faults, should be remembered
as one who loved England well and served her faithfully.
" The Defender of the Faith."
"The majestic lord
That broke the bonds of Rome.1'
Gray: " Installation Ode."
But it must not be supposed that because King Henry had not got
what he wanted by sending Cardinal Wolsey to the Pope he had given
up his object, or that he was one bit less determined than before to get
rid of his wife, Queen Catharine, and to marry Anne Boleyn.
We have now to learn how it was that the king gained the object
which he had so much at heart ; but in order to understand this we
shall have to go back a little and to read about things which had
306 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
been happening not only in England, but in other countries in Europe.
So long as Henry believed that he could get the Pope's consent to
the divorce, he was quite ready to admit that the Pope, and the Pope
alone, had the right to give him leave to put away his wife. In fact,
so ready was he to support the power of the Pope, that not long before
Wolsey's journey to Rome, Henry had gone so far as to write a book
which was intended to prove to all the world that the Pope was the
only true head of the Church.
The Pope, on his side, was so pleased to find the King of England
writing a book on his behalf, that he declared from that day forward,
the King of England should be known as The Defender of the Faith.
When we read what happened later in the history of Henry's reign,
we shall think this a very strange title for
the king to possess, but having once got the
title, Henry kept it ; and not only did Henry
keep it, but so did all the kings and queens
of England who came after him, and who
certainly could not be called " Defenders of
the Faith " in the sense in which Pope
Clement used the words.
If we put our hand in our pocket and
are lucky enough to find there a penny or a
HISTORY ON A PENNY. shilling, we shall see on it the letters " F. D."
These are the first letters of two Latin
words1 which mean " Defender of the Faith"; and it is because of
the book which Henry VIII. wrote in defence of the Pope nearly four
hundred years ago that King Edward VII. now has among his titles that
of " Defender of the Faith."
But though Henry was quite willing to support the Pope while
the Pope supported him, he very soon changed his view when he found
that neither threats nor entreaties could make Clement give his per-
mission for the divorce. Henry soon made up his mind that if he
could not get what he wanted with the Pope's help, he would get it
without it.
At first sight it is not easy to see why this quarrel between the
king and the Pope over a question such as that of the king's
marriage should be of great importance in the history of England,
nor why it should be put into a book like this, which is only long
enough to contain an account of the chief events that took place.
But we shall see as we read on that this quarrel had very important
1 Fidei Derensor,
" THE DEFENDER OF THE FAITH"
307
results, and led to changes in England of which the consequences
are felt by every English man and woman who is alive at this day.
As soon as Henry found that Clement would not consent to the
divorce, he sent round to all the great Universities of Europe to ask
the opinion of the learned men about the question. He thought
that if he could get the learned men in all the Universities to say
that the marriage
with Catharine was
against the law, the
Pope would be ob-
liged to change his
opinion, and to give
his consent. But,
unluckily, most of
the Universities
either sent no answer
at all, or sent the
very answer which
Henry did not wish
to receive. They said
that the marriage
was according to law,
and that Henry had
no right to divorce
Catharine.
And now at last
Henry was driven to
take a step which in
those days was a
very bold one. Up
to that time the Pope
had claimed to have
authority over all the
Christian countries
of Europe, and to be Head of the Church in all these countries. It
was because he claimed to be Head of the Church in England that
he had forbidden Henry to get rid of Catharine.
As long as Henry was willing to admit that the Pope had a right
to interfere in England, it was plain that he could not get his own
way. But as he was determined to get his own way, it was not
unnatural that he should soon begin to consider whether, after all,
a King of England were bound to obey the Pope, and whether it
THOMAS CROMWELL.
(From the painting by Holbein.)
308 HISTORY OP ENGLAND.
would not be a good thing to say once for all that the King of
England was not bound to obey any foreigner.
This was just the thought that did come into Henry's mind. It
very often happens that when kings or other people in a high posi-
tion, wish very much to be told that something they .want to do
is right, they soon find someone to tell them just what they want
to hear. This was what happened in Henry's case. He wanted
very much to be told that the time had come when the King of
England ought no longer to obey the Pope, and two men came
forward at that very moment to tell him that it was his duty to do
exactly what he wanted to do.
These two men became very famous in later years. One of them
was Thomas Cranmer, a clergyman, who was at this time a tutor in
a private family. The other was Thomas Cromwell, who had been
secretary to Cardinal Wolsey. It was Thomas Cranmer who advised
the king not to trouble any longer about what the Pope said, but
to ask the opinion of the learned men in the Universities.
Thomas Cromwell went farther than Cranmer, for he said that if
the king were wise he would be his own master ; that there was not
room for two masters in England, and that Henry had only got to
say that he was Head of the Church just as much as he was Head
of the Army, and of the Parliament, and of the Government of the
country, and there would be an end of all the difficulty. He went
on to say that if Henry wanted an example to follow he had only
to look to Germany, and there he would see that other Christian
princes had already taken the bold step which he now advised.
Nothing pleases a man better than to receive advice which exactly
falls in with his own views. Both Cranmer and Cromwell were richly
rewarded for what they had done. Cranmer before long was made
a bishop, and only two years later (1533) was raised to the high
office of Archbishop of Canterbury. Cromwell was chosen by the
king as his most trusted minister, and for many years held as great
a power in England as his master, Cardinal Wolsey, had done
before him.
309
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION.
Martin Luther.
"We have got our open Bible, we have got faith and hue. we can
preach the Gospel of the grace of God."— Luther.
WHEN Thomas Cromwell told Henry that there were Christian princes
in Europe who had already declared they would no longer obey the
orders of the Pope, he said what was quite true. For some years past
a great movement had been going on in Europe, and great changes had
been taking place in Germany, and in The Netherlands,1 and in France.
These great changes soon reached England, and they are so im-
portant, and have had so much to do with the history of our country
and the lives of our countrymen, that the whole of this chapter must
be given up to an account of what the changes were, and what were
the results which followed them.
The great movement which has just been mentioned is known
in history as the Protestant Reformation, and it is to the Protestant
Reformation that we owe the fact that England and Scotland are
among the great Protestant countries of the world. In the year 1517 a
German monk named Martin Luther began to attack the Pope and
the Church. He said that the teaching of the Church was no longer
what it ought to be, and that the priests withheld knowledge from
the people which they had no right to withhold.
The Pope had always forbidden the Bible to be freely translated,
and to be read by the people in languages which they could under-
stand. It was only allowed to be printed in Greek or in Latin. Luther
said that it ought to be translated into German, English, and French,
so that Germans, Englishmen, and Frenchmen, and, indeed, all other
people, might read the Scriptures in a language which they could
understand. He complained, too, of many things which were done
by the bishops and the priests, and he complained especially that
persons were allowed to go about the country telling men that if they
gave them a sum of money they would obtain a pardon for their
sins. Luther said that no man could pardon the sins of another
1 Now called Holland and Belgium.
3io
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
man, and that it was a wicked thing to buy and sell these pretended
pardons, or indulgences , as they were called.
It was not long before a great quarrel broke out between the Pope
on one side and Luther on the other. The Pope tried hard to put
down the German monk, but Luther was a bold man and went about
fearlessly preaching and teaching. He said that the. time had come
MARTIN LUTHER.
(From the picture by L. Cranach.)
when the Christian Church ought to be altered, or reformed ; and
he objected to, or protested against, the way in which the Church
\\as governed at that time by the Pope. It was because Luther
made this protest, and tried to bring about this reform, that those
who agreed with him were called Protestants and Reformers. We
shall see that the teaching and preaching of Luther, though it was
begun in Germany, at length reached England, and that it is to
this German monk that we owe largely the Protestant Reformation.
MARTIN LUTHER.
Luther's preaching convinced many people in Germany, and
several of the German princes became members of the Reformed
Church. A fierce struggle began between the Protestants or Reformers
on the one side, and the Roman Catholics, or supporters of the Pope, on
THE TUNE OF " LUTHER'S HYMN."
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the other; and there was war for many years in Germany, France,
and the Netherlands.
There is not room, however, in this book to tell the story of the
Reformation in Germany. We must pass on to the story of the
Reformation in England; but before we leave Martin Luther behind
altogether, we shall do well to try and make a picture to ourselves
of what this great man was like.
312 HISTORY OF ENGLAND,
We can get some idea of what he was like from the picture on
page 310. The description of those who saw him and knew him
tells us even more than the picture. He was a man of good stature
and of great strength, a man who feared nothing, and whose courage
kept him up through all the troubles and dangers through which he
passed. His face was rugged and massive ; it was the face of a man
who was honest as the day, full of determination, and quite without
fear. For many years Luther's life was in constant danger ; never for
an instant, however, did he hold back from the work he had under-
taken on account of the danger which threatened him.
There are many things we see and hear around us every day which
should remind us of Martin Luther, and which we owe in part to the
work he did. There is one thing which we owe to him that many of us
know, though perhaps all those who know it are not aware that it
had anything to do with the great Reformer. Luther wrote many
books, of which some are now forgotten ; but there is one thing Luther
wrote and which is not forgotten, either in Luther's own land or in
this country. This is the set of verses known as Luther's Hymn. In
German the hymn begins like this : —
" Ein Feste Burg ist unser Gott."
Here are two verses of the hymn in its English form : —
" A safe stronghold our God is still,
A trusty shield and weapon ;
He'll help us clear from all the ill
That hath us now o'ertaken.
The ancient prince of hell
Hath risen with purpose fell ;
Strong mail of craft and power
He weareth in this hour :
On earth is not his fellow.
"With force of arms we nothing can,
Full soon were we down-ridden ;
But for us fights the proper Man,
Whom God Himself hath bidden.
Ask ye, who is this same ?
Christ Jesus is His name,
The Lord Sabaoth's Son :
He and no other one
Shall conquer in the battle,"
The "New Learning1 "—Erasmus, Colet, and More.
"The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfils himself in many ways. "
Tennyson: "The Passing of Arthur."
It was not long before the teaching of Luther reached England. It
was the custom at that time for students to go about from one great
University to another, learning what they could from the most famous
teachers in each place. English students soon brought to England an
account of the New Teaching, or "New Learning.'1''
By this time, too, many books were printed, and thus the writings
of Luther and of those who agreed wifh him were brought over to
England, and became known to many persons. Nor was the teaching
of Luther the only thing which threatened the Roman Catholic Church,
Before the printing press was invented, nearly all those who could
read and write were priests or monks, and the few books which were
written were generally kept in the churches or monasteries. It was
not wonderful, therefore, that people got to think that books, and the
learning that was to be found in books, belonged to the Church only,
and that common people, who were not priests or monks, had no
business to meddle with books or with book-learning.
But when the printing press had once been invented there came
a great change. Every year numbers of new books were brought out,
and these books were openly sold for money ; so that anyone who
could afford it could buy a copy and learn for himself those things
which, hitherto, people had only been able to learn through the priests
and the monks. All over Europe, and in England, men now began to
read books and to explain them in their own way, and they began to
find out many things that the priests had never told them. It was
a new thing for people to think for themselves, and the priests, who
had so long been accustomed to make people think in their way, did
not like to see so many new books printed and read.
But those who loved the new books and longed to find out all that
was in them, refused to stop reading and studying, even though the
Pope and the priests ordered them to do so. And thus it came about
that, in addition to Luther and his friends, the Pope found another
set of people who did not admit that he had the right to give orders and
to say what was right and what was wrong. Among those who were
3*4
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the foremost to bring the " New Learning" into England were three
men, Erasmus, Sir Thomas More, and Colet.
Erasmus was a native of Rotterdam, or what we should now call
a Dutchman. He was a great student, and he could not only read
Latin easily, but he could write most beautiful Latin also. He wrote
many books, which became very famous in his time. The chief thing
that he taught in all of them was that men ought to think for them-
selves, and not merely to believe things to be true because their fathers
before them, or the priest, or
the Pope, or anyone else, said
they were true.
Although Erasmus was a
Dutchman, he spent a great
deal of his time in England.
He was a great friend of Sir
Thomas More, and he used to
spend much time with More
at Oxford and elsewhere.
He also wrote many letters to
Sir Thomas More, and re-
ceived many letters from him
in return. The writings of
Erasmus are very clever and
witty. A great deal of them
is taken up in laughing at
the ignorance of the people
who lived in his time, and in
showing them how ready they
had been to believe just what
they were told without taking
the trouble to find out whether it were true or false.
Thomas More, who afterwards became Sir Thomas More, is known in
English history, not only as the friend of Erasmus, but as a good and
noble Englishman, who lived a beautiful life and died a noble death.
He first began life as a lawyer. In the reign of Henry VII. he became
a Member of Parliament, and fourteen years after Henry VIII. came
to th^ throne he was made Speaker of the House of Commons. In
1529 he was made Lord Chancellor, and in 1535 he 'was beheaded
by order of the king, as we shall read a little farther on.
John Colet was a great scholar. He studied at the University of
Oxford, and went abroad to Italy and to Paris to learn Greek. In Paris
he made friends with Erasmus. He had already become a friend of
SIR THOMAS MORE.
(After the picture by Holbein.)
QUARREL WITH THR POPE. 315
More's at Oxford. In the twentieth year of King Henry VII. 's reign
(1505) he was made Dean of St. Paul's. His name is, or ought to be>
very well known to many English boys in our day.
Up to a few years ago there stood a great building in St. Paul's
Churchyard, opposite the Cathedral of St. Paul's. This building was
St. Paul's School, one of the great public schools of England. It was
John Colet, Dean of St. Paul's, who founded St. Paul's School. The
school no longer stands in the old place in St. Paul's Churchyard, but
has been moved to another part of London, where there is more space
and fresher air ; but it is to be hoped that the " Paulines," as the boys
of St. Paul's call themselves, still remember and honour the name of
their founder, John Colet, Dean of St. Paul's, the friend of Erasmus and
Sir Thomas More.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
i
HENRY AS HEAD OF THE CHURCH.
Henry's Quarrel with the Pope, and What It Led to.
"Henry the Eighth by the Grace of God, of England, France, and
Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, and Supreme Head on Earth of the
Church of England, and Ireland." — Henry's title, taken from Royal Letters
Patent to Sir G. Cheinie.
Now that we have read about Luther and the Protestants, and about
Erasmus and the friends of the New Learning, it is time to go back to
the story of Henry VIII. in England. In the previous chapter we read
about Henry's quarrel with Pope Clement about the divorce which
Henry wanted, but which Clement would not allow him to have. We
read also how Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell had given
the same advice to King Henry. " If," said Thomas Cromwell, " you
cannot do what you want with the Pope's leave, why not do it without ?
All you have to do is to say that the Pope has no right to give orders
to the King of England, and that the king, and not the Pope, is at
the head of the English Church."
This advice fell in with Henry's own wishes ; but perhaps if he had
had to fight alone against the Pope, without anyone on his side, he
might have feared to follow Thomas Cromwell's advice ; for the power
316 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
of the Pope was very great, both in England and on the Continent.
But, as we have jnst read in the last chapter, the Pope had already
made two sets of enemies.
In the first place there were Luther and his friends the Protestants,
in the second place there were men like Erasmus and More, who, though
they had not quarrelled with the Pope, were not liked by many of the
priests on account of the books they wrote and the ideas they taught.
What then could be more natural than that Henry should become
the friend of the Pope's enemies ? And this, indeed, was just what
happened.
The king, who but a few years before had been called " Defender of
the Faith," now declared that whether the Pope gave his consent to
the divorce or not did not matter. The King of England, he sa^d, was
the Head of the Church of England, and the Pope had no right to
interfere. He allowed the Protestant preachers, whom the Pope had
condemned, to come into England and to remain there unharmed.
He made Sir Thomas More Lord Chancellor, and, what was more than
all, he allowed the Reformers, or Protestants, to translate the Bible
into English, and gave permission for the Bible to be freely read in all
the churches.
But it must not be supposed that Henry had done all this to please
either Luther and the Protestants, or Erasmus and the learned men.
He had done it in order to get his own way, and to please himself.
In May, 1533, Cranmer declared Catharine to be divorced. The king
had already married Anne Boleyn, and Cranmer declared that the
marriage was lawful, and so at last Henry got his way. Pope Clement
was very angry, and declared that neither Henry nor Cranmer had
any right to act without his leave.
But now that Henry had gone so far, he was not going back. If
the Pope were to be his enemy, he determined that he in his turn
would show himself a bitter ene.my to the Pope. He commanded
everyone to admit that he alone was Head of the Church of England.
Those who would not submit were thrown into prison and their
property was taken from them. Parliament was called together, and
declared that the king was right and the Pope wrong, and Henry,
having got Parliament on his side, was determined at any cost to make
everyone bow to his will.
Among the victims of his anger were some of the worthiest and
noblest men in England. Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and Sir Thomas
More, Lord Chancellor, were among the best friends of the king.
They were ready to serve him, and they were ready to obey him.
But there was one thing they would not do. They would not do what
THE "HAMMER OF THE MONKS" 317
they believed to be wrong, nor say what they believed to be false,
even though the king bade them.
Neither More nor Fisher believed that the king had any right to
disobey the Pope, and to make himself Head of the Church ; and when
they were called upon to swear that they would obey Henry as Head
of the Church, they both of them refused to do so. Neither the age
of Fisher (for the bishop was seventy-six) nor the goodness and faithful
service of More could protect them from the king's fury. They were
thrown into the Tower, and while they were there, Parliament, to
please the king, declared them guilty of treason, and they were
condemned to death, Fisher was executed at the Tower on June
22nd, 1535. It was not till a fortnight later, July 6th, that More met
his fate.
But Fisher and Sir Thomas More were not the only victims of the
king's savage temper. Anne Boleyn, his beautiful wife, for whom Henry
had not feared to quarrel with the Pope, was among the first to suffer.
The king charged her with not being true to him ; she was tried and
condemned to death, and on May igth, 1536, was executed at the
Tower.
She left behind her one child, who was christened Elizabeth,COL>) and
who afterwards became very famous in English history as Queen
Elizabeth. The day after Anne Boleyn's execution Henry married
Jane Seymour, who had been one of Anne's ladies, and who was the
daughter of Sir John Seymour, a Wiltshire gentleman.
The " Hammer of the Monks.'
"It has come to our ears, being at once publicly notorious, and brought
before us on the testimony of many witnesses worthy of credit, that you,
the Abbot before mentioned, have been of long time noted and diffamed,
and do yet continue so noted, of simony,1 of usury, of dilapidation and
waste of the goods, revenues, and possessions of the said monastery, and
of certain other enormous crimes and excesses hereafter written."
Letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Abbot of St. Albans, 1489.
But though Anne Boleyn was dead, Henry's quarrel with the Pope
was not at an end. Indeed, he had already found out that by keeping
up his dispute with the Pope, he had always an easy way of growing
rjoh left open to him. Throughout all England at that time there
1 Simony, tte crime of selling offices in the Church ("or nwncy,
318 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
were great buildings known as Monasteries and Nunneries, which
belonged to the Church, and in which monks and nuns used to live.
Many of these monasteries and nunneries had become very rich,
and some of the best land in England belonged to them. Some of
the monks lived good lives, and did good work in teaching and
helping the poor among whom they lived. There were others who
lived bad lives, and spent their money upon themselves, and who
were a disgrace to the Church to which they belonged.
When Henry made up his mind to destroy the monasteries and
nunneries, it was not hard for him to find out many bad things
which could truly be said of the monks and nuns, and which he
could use as an excuse for taking away their property.
But there can be no doubt that what made Henry most anxious
to destroy the monasteries and nunneries was the great wealth which
they possessed. It was Thomas Cromwell who was foremost in this
work, and he soon won Henry's favour by the zeal which he showed.
More than 800 monasteries and nunneries were broken up and
destroyed, and the great wealth which belonged to them was seized
by the king.
Perhaps, if this money had been wisely used for the good of the
country, there would have been little to complain of, but Henry and
Cromwell were most extravagant. Very large sums of money and
the greater part of the lands which had belonged to the monks were
given by the king to his favourites, and most of what he did not
give away he kept for himself. Many of the most beautiful abbeys
and churches were allowed to fall into ruin, and the schools which
had been kept by the monks were in many cases shut up. So bitter
was Thomas Cromwell against the monks, and so fiercely did 1 e
attack the monasteries, that he earned the name of The Hammer oj
the Monks,1 by which was meant that he had hammered and crushed
them to pieces.
But though the monks and nuns had in many cases ceased to
do good, it is not wonderful that they had friends throughout the
country. In many places they had helped the poor, in others they
had taught those who had no other teachers, and they had allies
among the great nobles. It is easy to understand, therefore, why
when Thomas Cromwell " hammered " the monasteries to pieces he
should have made many enemies. In Lincolnshire the friends of the
monks rose in rebellion, but were soon put down by the king's
friends.
It is interesting and amusing to read the answer which King
* In Latin, "MalUus Monachorunit"
Tin-: "HAMMER OF THE Mo.\KsJn 319
Henry gave to the poople of Lincolnshire when they Drought their
grievances before him. If we read it we shall understand how great
a person the King of England was in those days, and how little the
people of the country had to do with its government. This is what
the king said to the people of Lincolnshire : —
"THE KINGES ANSWER TO THE REBELLES.
"First we begyn and make answere to the foure and sixe articles, because upon
them pendeth ! much of the rest. Concernyng chosyng of counsylors, I never haue -
red,3 hard,4 nor knowne, that princes, counsailors and prelates should be appoynted by
rude and ignorant common people, nor that they wer persones mete,5 nor of the habilitie6
to discerne and choose mete and sufficient counsailors for a prince ; how presumpteous
then are ye, the rude commons of one shire, and that one of the most brute and beastly
of the whole realme, and of the least experience, to fynd faute with your Prince . . ."
A fiercer rebellion than that in Lincolnshire broke out in Yorkshire
(1536-7), and a large army, collected from all parts of the North,
was soon gathered together. The rebels marched with priests at
their head carrying crosses and banners, and the priests promised
their blessing to those who took part in the rebellion. The inarch
of this northern army was called the Pilgrimage of Grace. At first it
seemed as if the friends of the king would be beaten, but before long
the royal troops succeeded in driving back the rebels, many of whom
were taken and put to death, while the rest returned peaceably to
their homes.
It is not easy to understand the part which Henry himself played
at this time. Although he was an enemy of the Pope, he would not
join openly with the Reformers. On one thing, however, he was
determined, and that was that he was the Head of the Church of
England, and indeed, head of everything else in England. It soon
became clear that nobody was safe who dared to say or to do anything
against the will of the king. At the same time, it is fair to King
Henry to say, that he did not interfere with those who did not interfere
with him, and during his reign the number of Protestants in England
grew steadily larger.
1 Dependeth " Have. 3 Read. * Heard. 5 Fit. 6 Capable of.
320 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Anne of Cleves— The Fall of Thomas Cromwell.
"For marriage is a matter of more worth
Than to be dealt in by attorneyship. "
Shakespeare : "Henry VI.," Part I.
In 1537 was born Prince Edward, the only son of Henry's third wife,
Jane Seymour. Henry was delighted at the birth of a son, and the
child was at once proclaimed Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, and
Earl of Chester. Farther on in this book we shall read how this
little prince became Edward VI.,(63) King of England.
This is how the joyful event was spoken of: —
"THE BIRTH OF EDWARD VI.
" In Octobre on Saint Edwardes euen 1 was borne at Hampton Courte the noble
Impe,2 prince Edward whose Godfathers at the Christenyng were the Archbishop of
Canterbourie, and the Duke of Norffolk, and his Godmother, the Lady Mary, the
Kynges daughter, and at the bishoping3 was Godfather the Duke of Suffolk; at the
birth of this noble prince was great fires made through the whole realme and great loye
•nade with thanks geuying 4 to almightie God whiche hath sent so noble a prince to scced 5
in the croune6 of this Realme; But Lorde what lamentacion shortly after was made
for the death of his noble and gracious mother, quene lane, which departed out of this
life the fourtene day of Octobre, next following . . . ."
For so it was, twelve days after the birth of Prince Edward, his
mother, Jane Seymour, died.
It was two years before King Henry married again, and this time
the wife whom he chose was a foreigner. Her name was Anne of Cleves,
daughter of the Duke of Cleves, one of the Protestant princes of
Germany. It was Thomas Cromwell who advised the king to marry
Anne of Cleves. The friends of the Pope were very angry with
Cromwell, and he thought he would be safe from their anger if he
could persuade the king to marry a Protestant wife.
It was said that Anne was very beautiful ; and a picture was shown
to the king which seemed to prove that what had been said of her
was true. But when the Queen came to England, and Henry saw her
with his own eyes, he found she was exceeedingly plain ; and not
only that, but she could not speak a single word of anything but
German, whioh Henry himself could not understand. The king could
J Eve, 8 Child- 8 Christening * Thanksgiving. » Succeed, 6 Crown,
THE II'ALL OF CROMWELL.
321
not refuse to marry Anne, according to his promise, but it was not long
before he made up his mind to get rid of her.
Meanwhile he could not conceal his anger against Cromwell, who
had led him into the marriage, and when Cromwell's enemies brought
accusations against him, Henry gladly listened to them. Cromweil
was arrested, tried for high treason, and executed (1540). He had long
had few friends
save the king, and
now the king de-
serted him a? he
had deserted Wol-
sey. As soon as
Cromwell was
dead , Henry
divorced Anne of
Cleves. He treated
her kindly, and
gave her a house
to live in, and
money to keep it
up. She lived
quietly in Eng-
land for seventeen
years after her
divorce, and long
after Henry's
death.
A month after
he had got rid of
Anne of Cleves,
Henry married his
fifth wife, Catharine
Howard, niece of
the Duke of Nor-
folk. In less than
eighteen months, Catharine had shared the fate of Anne Boleyn.
Parliament, as usual, was ready to undertake any shameful and
cruel work which the king ordered it to perform. Catharine was
condemned by Parliament, January, 1542, and was beheaded in
the following month.
It was not till the year 1543, eighteen months later, that the
king married his sixth and last wife. This was Catharine Parr, a widow,
ANNE OF CLEVES.
(From the portrait by Holbein )
322 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
and daughter of Sir Thomas Parr, to whom Henry was married in
his fifty-third year. This lady had the good fortune to outlive her
husband, and died in the reign of Edward VI. (1548).
Ireland, Scotland, and France.
"There's a saying, very old and true, —
// that you will France win,
Then with Scotland first begin. "
Shakespeare: "Henry V."
Before we leave the reign of Henry VIII. altogether, we must
turn our attention for a short time to wha.t took place during the
last part of that reign in Ireland, Scotland, and France. In Ireland a
rebellion broke out. At the head of it was Lord Thomas Fitzgerald,
the son of the Earl of Kildare. An English army was sent over,
and after a long and fierce campaign, in which great cruelties were
committed on both sides, the revolt was put down. The authority
of England was now fixed more firmly in Ireland than it had ever
been before, and Henry was the first of the English kings to take
the title of King of Ireland (1542).
The troubles in Scotland were more serious. The party which
then held power in Scotland had at its head Cardinal Beaton, who
looked upon King Henry as one of the worst enemies of the Roman
Catholic Church. Beaton and all his friends were ready to join in
any war against the King of England. At the same time there were
already many Reformers in Scotland who hated Cardinal Beaton,
and who refused to help him against England. These quarrels between
different parties in Scotland proved" to be of advantage to England,
for they led to much fighting in Scotland, and weakened the attack
of the Scots upon England.
However, it was not long before an excuse was found for war
between the two countries. James V. of Scotland(W) marched south-
wards at the head of an army, but his troops declined to follow
him into England. Some of them also refused to obey the orders of
the general whom the king appointed. They threw down their arms,
and while all was confusion, the English troops attacked and defeated
them.
It was while Scotland was suffering from these troubles that
an event took place which proved to be of great importance, both
IRELAND, SCOTLAND, AND PRANCE. 323
to England and to Scotland. On the yth of December, 1542, was
born Mary,(ti9) daughter of James V , King of Scotland, and of Mary of
Guise, his queen. We shall read much more about this little Prin-
cess Mary, who afterwards became famous under the name of Mary,
Queen of Scots. Indeed, it was not long before the little princess
became a queen. Only seven days after she was born, her father,
James, died, and Mary became from that day the rightful Queen of
Scotland.
Henry very soon found himself at war both with Scotland and
with France. He sent an army into France to help the Emperor Charles
against Francis I., King of France, but little came of the expedition.
The emperor found that Henry was much more anxious to take
Boulogne for himself than to help him to gain the object he had
in view, and to capture the city of Paris.
Charles and Francis before long came to a separate agreement
v/ithout consulting Henry, and the King of England found himself
without an ally. For the first time for many a year the French fleet
attacked the shores of England, and French troops actually landed
in the Isle of Wight, but were driven back by the inhabitants. The
war came to an end in 1546, and all that Henry had gained was the
capture of Boulogne, which was taken after a long siege.
Nor did Henry meet with much more success in Scotland. He had
demanded that the little Queen of Scots should be given in marriage to
his son Edward, and this was agreed to by treaty in 1543. Both
Edward and Mary were still quite young children. Henry required
that the Queen should be sent into England for safe keeping. The
Roman Catholic party in Scotland, under Cardinal Beaton, naturally
refused to give her up. Henry sent the Duke of Norfolk with an army*
and he found friends amongst the Protestant party across the Border.
But the expedition was not a success, and the English troops were
withdrawn without having succeeded in their object.
In the same year Cardinal Beaton was murdered. It was said by
some that he had been murdered by Henry's wish; but though his
death was a great blow to the Roman Catholic party in Scotland, and
though it led to a fierce conflict in that country, it did not make the
Scots more willing to give up their queen to King Henry.
324 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
About Ships, Flag's, and Soldiers.
"Saint George he is for England
Saint Denys is for France."
Old Song.
The wars of which we have just spoken were not very important in
themselves, and led to no great results at the time, but for one thing
they ought to bs remembered. Much of the fighting, both with France
and with Scotland, had been fighting at sea, and for the first time we
find that royal ships were built by order of the king for the special
purpose of fighting at sea. One of the finest of these ships was the
" Great Harry," of 1,000 tons. She carried twenty-three great guns, and
some of her cannon carried shot weighing thirty pounds, which is
heavier than most of the cannon-balls which were used at the battle
of Trafalgar nearly three hundred years later. Some of the cannon
made in this reign weighed as much as five tons.
It was Henry who first made a regular payment to soldiers who
served in the ships of the Royal Navy; and the famous corps of the
Eoyal Marines traces back its history to this time.
It was Henry also who first ordered that every king's ship should
fly, at the masthead and at the bowsprit, the flag with the Red Cross on
the white ground, which is called the Cross of St. George. This flag is
now carried on every admiral's ship in the British Navy, and the red
St. George's Cross may be seen in the middle of the Union Jack, if we
look at the coloured picture at the beginning of this book.
There is an old picture of a seafight, which took place in the reign
of Henry VIII., between Lord Howard, High Admiral of England, and
Sir Andrew Barton, a Scottish privateer. In this picture the English
ships may be seen with the red Sb. George's Cross for their flag, and the
Scottish ships with the white Cross or Saltire of St. Andrew. In the
flag which is now carried by all ships in the Royal Navy these two
crosses are joined together.
It was in the year 1547 that Henry died. He was fifty-five years
of age, and had reigned over thirty-seven years. Before his death he
had made a will declaring that his son Edward should succeed him on
the throne ; that after Edward should come his elder daughter Mary,
and that after Mary should come his second daughter, Elizabeth.
SEA FIGHT BETWEEN LORD HOWARD AND SIR ANDREW BARTON.
326
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
CHAPTER XL.
EDWARD VI.
1547-1553
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF
EDWARD VI,
Edward VI., King of England, son of Henry
VIII. and Jane Seymour, b. 1537,
Mary,
became king 1547, d. 1553.
sister of Edward VI.,
afterwards
Queen of England.
Elizabeth, sister of Edward VI. and Mary,
afterwards Queen of England.
Mary, Queen of Scots.
Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, Lord
Protector, uncle to Edward VI.,
executed 1552.
John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland,
Lord Protector.
Lady Jane Grey, daughter of Henry Grey,
Marquis of Dorset, and great-grand-
daughter of Henry VII., m. Lord
Guilford Dudley.
Lord Guilford Dudley, son of the Duke
of Northumberland, husband of Lady
Henry II., King of France. [Jane Grey.
Charles I., King of Spain, known also as the
Emperor Charles V.
Philip, King of Naples and Sicily, son of-
Charles V.,. afterwards Philip II. of
Spain, and husband of Marv, Queen
Paul III., Pope, d. 1550. [of England.
JullUS III., Pope.
Soliman the Magnificent, Sultan of Turkey.
Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canter-
bury.
Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester,
imprisoned in this reign.
Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London, im-
prisoned in this reign
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF EDWARD VI.
1547. Edward VI. becomes King of England.
Catharine Parr marries Sir Thomas
Seymour.
The Earl of Hertford made Duke of
Somerset and Lord Protector.
Francis L, King of France, dies.
John Knox preaches in Scotland.
P.attle of Pinkie Cleugh.
1548, The Queen of Scots affianced to the
Dauphin.
The orange tree imported from China
into Portugal.
1548. The French land in Scotland.
1549. The Book of Common Prayer adopted.
Gardiner and Bonner seot to the Tower.
Francis Xavier, the great French mis-
sionary, goes to Japan.
1551. The Duke of Somerset tried and con-
demned.
Shrewsbury School founded.
1552. The Duke of Somerset executed.
1553. Parliament fixes the succession on Lady
Jane Grev.
Edward VI. dies.
327
Lord Protector Somerset.
" THIRD CITIZEN. Woe to the land that's governed by a child/
FIRST CITIZEN. So stood the State, when Henry the Sixth
Was crowned in Paris but at nine months old.
THIRD CITIZEN. Stood the State so ? No, no, good friends, God wot :
For then this land was famously enrich'd
With politic grave counsel : then the King
Had uirtuous uncles to protect his grace,
FIRST CITIZEN. Why, so hath this, both by his father and mother.
THIRD CITIZEN. Better it were, they all came by his father."
Shakespeare : " King Richard III.'
WE now begin the story of the reign of Edward VI.(63) It was a short
reign, lasting only six years, but it has an important place in the
history of England. In order to understand the events which took
place in these six years, we must go back a little and recall what we
know about the new king. Of all Henry VIII.'s six wives, the one
whom he had probably loved the best was Jane Seymour ; and one of
"the reasons why Henry loved the memory of Jane so much was
because she was the mother of his only son.
It was this son, who was born on the i2th October, 1537, who now
became King of England at the age of eight years. It must not be
forgotten that though Henry had only one son he had two daughters,
Mary, the daughter of Catharine of Aragon, and Elizabeth, daughter of
Anne Boleyn. But though Mary and Elizabeth were both older than
their brother Edward, Edward came to the throne before either of
them, according to the law of England, which always gave the sons the
right to succeed before the daughters.
Jane Seymour was dead, but she had many relations who were still
alive. We shall see that these relations played a very important part
in the reign of the new king. In order to show his affection for his
wife, Henry had given great rewards to her relations, and had placed
them in high offices. Her eldest brother, Edward Seymour, was made
Earl of Hertford; another relation, Sir John Russell, was made Lord
Russell ; while a third was made High Admiral of England. Now it so
happened that though Jane Seymour was not a Protestant herself,
most of her relations belonged to the Protestant party. Among these,
Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, was the most powerful.
As the young king was quite a child, it was clear that for some
328
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
years at least he would have to be guided and advised by others. It
was soon seen that the Earl of Hertford had made up his mind that he
would become the chief adviser to his little nephew. He persuaded
the king's Council to declare him to be Lord Protector of the king,
and to bestow upon him in the name of the king the title of Duke, of
Somerset. It is under the name of the Duke of Somerset that we hear
about Edward Seymour during King Edward's reign.
King Edward had been
_, L_ ' ."a brought up as a Protestant;
and as the Duke of Somer-
set, who now really ruled the
kingdom in the king's name,
was also a Protestant, the
Reformers in England began
to hope that their cause
would win the day. Nor
were they disappointed, for
it was during the reign of
Edward VI. that the Re-
formed Church really took
the place of the Roman
Catholic Church in England."
But the first work which
occupied the Protector was
the work of war. It had
been agreed that poor little
King Edward should marry
Mary Stuart, of Scotland, and
though the king was only
nine years old, and Mary
only four, Somerset called
upon the King of Scotland
to fulfil the promise which
had been made, and to send Mary to England.
The party which was at that time most powerful in Scotland was
the Roman Catholic party, and the Roman Catholics had no love
for Somerset and his Protestant friends, and did not at all want to
see the Queen of Scotland married to a Protestant king. They
therefore refused point blank to do what Somerset asked. The
refusal led to war ; an English army again crossed the Border, and
defeated the Scots at Pinkie Cleugh (1547), near Edinburgh.
But little came of the victory. Somerset had no sooner gained
EDWARD vr.
(From the portrait by Holbein.}
THE FALL OF SOMERSET. 329
the battle than he came back in haste to London, fearing lest in his
absence his enemies there might do him some mischief. It was an
odd way to try to win a bride, by sending an army into her country,
and killing some hundreds of her best soldiers; and it is not won-
derful that Somerset did not succeed in winning Mary of Scotland
for his young master. Indeed, he might almost have foreseen what
really took place.
The Scots were determined that their young and beautiful queen
should not marry the King of England, and they rightly thought that
the best way to protect her from any further claims was to marry
her to somebody else. Accordingly, just a year after the battle of
Pinkie Cleugh, Mary was betrothed, not to King Edward, but to
King Edward's enemy, Francis, Dauphin* of France, who afterwards
became King Francis II. of France.
As soon as Somerset, the Lord Protector, got back to London,
he set to work to strengthen his own power. As was usual in those
days, he thought the best way to begin was by getting rid of those
who were likely to become his enemies or his rivals. He brought a
charge of treason against his own brother, Thomas Seymour, Admiral
of England. Parliament, as usual, was ready to help, and Thomas
was condemned by the House of Commons, unheard and without'
trial, and beheaded.
Still further to strengthen his own power, Somerset now sought
to marry the Princess Mary, the elder sister of the king ; and when
he found this was impossible, he sought the hand of her sister
Elizabeth; but in this also he was unsuccessful.
The Fall of Somerset and the Rise of Northumberland.
"He has gambled for his life, and lost: he hangs."
Tennyson : " Queen Mary."
It soon became clear that, after all Somerset had done to gain
power for himself, and to weaken his enemies, he was still in great
danger. Many of the nobles hated him, and were jealous of him.
Those who were the friends of the old Church looked upon him as
their chief enemy.
In many parts of the country the breaking-up of the monasteries
1 The eldest son of the- King of France was always called the Dauphin, just as the eldest son
of the King or Queen of England is always called the Prince of Wales,
L*
330
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
had caused great discontent, for the people who had been accustomed
to receive charity from the monks, and who had found in the mon-
asteries their only teachers, were very angry with the Reformers.
In some of the counties the people rose in rebellion, as they had
done before in Henry VIII.'s time, and Somerset found much
difficulty in putting them down and in restoring quiet.
It was not wonderful that when he found that the friends of the
monks were everywhere his enemies, Somerset should have done all
he could to help and strengthen the Protestants, who were his friends.
In doing this he found a ready helper in the king, who had been
brought up as a Protestant,
and who was now getting
old enough to take some
part himself in settling
what should be done.
The king's council was
made up of warm friends
of the Reformation, who
lost no time in helping
on the cause which they
cared so much about. The
bishops who would not
admit that the king was
the true Head of the
Church in England were
turned out. Two of them
— Gardiner, Bishop of Win-
THE BLOCK, THE HEADSMAN'S AXE, AND MASK, chester, and Bonner, Bishop
of London — were put into
prison, and Protestant bishops were put in their places.
A new Protestant Prayer-Book, written in English, was drawn up
and ordered to be used in all churches, and Protestant schools were
started in many places with the help of the money that had been
taken from the monasteries. In all these things Somerset, as a
member of the council, took a chief part. But the time had at
last come when he was to fall from power, as so many others had
done before him.
Among the bitterest enemies of Somerset was Dudley, Earl of
Warwick. Warwick had led the king's troops against the rebels,
and had been very successful in beating them and in restoring
peace. He used his power to attack Somerset. First of all, he
accused him of having kept for himself the money which had been
. THE RISE OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 331
taken from the monasteries, or which had been paid in fines by the
nobles who had risen in rebellion against the king, and had been
punished for their disloyalty. This money, said Warwick and his
friends, belonged to the king, and to the king's treasury, but Somerset
had dishonestly kept it, and spent it on himself.
So many people had lost their money and were lamenting over
its loss, that it was easy enough to find plenty who were ready
to join in the cry against the Lord Protector. Then Warwick
brought another charge. He said that Somerset had agreed to a
disgraceful peace with the King of France, and that he had given
up the King of England's rights to those parts of France which he
still claimed.
At last Warwick felt strong enough to do what he had long wanted
to do, namely, to get rid of Somerset altogether, and to take his place
as chief councillor of the young king. He persuaded Edward to
make him Duke of Northumberland; and having collected a number
of friends who, like himself, hated Somerset, he openly charged the
Protector with high treason. Somerset was taken prisoner, was
tried, and, after a short delay, was executed on Tower Hill on the
22nd January, 1552.
The Duke of Northumberland now became the most powerful man
in England, and it seemed that he had at last got all he hoped for,
namely, the power to use the name of King Edward for his own
purposes. The first use he made of his power was to marry his son,
Lord Guilford Dudley, to the Lady Jane Grey. Farther on we shall
read the sorrowful story of poor Lady Jane Grey, who for a few
short hours was Queen of England.
But to understand the story rightly we must find out who Lady
Jane Grey was, and why the Duke of Northumberland was so anxious
that she should become the wife of his son. The easiest way to
understand who Lady Jane was, is to look at the table which is
given on this page. With a little patience we shall be able to
trace out her family, and to see exactly what relation she was to the
Royal Family of England. We shall see that she was the great-niece
of Henry VIII, and the grand -daughter of his sister Mary and the young
Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, about whom we read in Chapter XXXVI.
HENRY VII.
Henry VIII. Margaret = James IV. of Mary Tudor = Charles Brandon,
f — | f | Scotland. | Duke of Suffolk.
Mary. Elizabeth. Edward VI. James V. Frances — Henry Grey,
I I Duke of Suffolk.
Mary, Queen of Scots. Lady Ja'nfi Grey
332 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
1 The reason why Northumberland wanted his son to marry Jane
was a very plain one. Parliament had declared that neither Mary
nor Elizabeth, the two daughters of Henry VIII., had any right to
come to the throne; and if they did not there would only be one
other person when King Edward died who would have a better right
than Lady Jane Grey to come to the throne as Queen of England.
This one person was Mary, Queen of Scots ; but nobody believed that
Mary, Queen of Scots, would be allowed to become Queen of England.
Northumberland, therefore, hoped to see his son become the husband
of one who would be queen as soon as King Edward was dead.
And it was already plain to all that in a very few months King
Edward would be dead. The poor boy had always been weak and
ailing. Scarcely able to walk, he liked to be carried to the window to
see what was passing in the world outside. In the Council Chamber
he sat on the throne supported by cushions, an unhappy sufferer, weak
and in pain. In the year 1553 he was taken ill with measles, and later
in the same year he had small-pox also. He caught cold, and before
long the cold went to his lungs, and he got consumption.
Northumberland saw that the king was dying, and he saw too
that if he were to make any use of the king's name before he died,
he must do so at once. He persuaded the dying king to make a will
in which he declared that the Lady Jane was the true heir to the
throne. This was Edward's last act. On the 6th July, 1553, the poor
king died, in the seventh year of his reign.
The reign of Edward VI. was a short one, but the king himself,
unlike his father, was not the chief person in the history of his time.
But the reign was a very important one in English history — so im-
portant, indeed, that before going on to the next reign it is necessary
to say a little more about the great change which had taken place in
England while Edward was on the throne. It is impossible to under-
stand the story of the next reign unless we also understand quite
clearly what had gone before it.
333
CHAPTER XLI.
WHAT THE REFORMATION MEANT
The "Old Religion" and the "New."
"The Bishop of Rome1 hath no jurisdiction in this realm of England."
— From one of the " Articles " or Rules of the Church of England agreed to in Queen
Elizabeth's time.
IT is not possible to tell the story of these times without speaking very
often about The Reformation, the New Religion, and the Protestants. It
will be a good thing, therefore, to explain in a short way, before we go
on any further, what is meant by these words, and what the Reforma-
tion and the New Religion were.
We have already read something about the Reformation which was
begun by Martin Luther in Germany, and which, in Edward VI. 's
time, had spread to England. The New Religion was the religion of
those who had followed the teachings of Luther and of his friends, and
both in England and in Germany the followers of the New Religion
were called Protestants or Reformers.
But when we read of the New Religion we must not suppose that the
religion of the Protestants was really a new one. It was the Christian
religion in which the people of England had believed since the time
when St. Augustine first began to preach at Canterbury, 900 years
before the reign of Henry VIII. It was the Christian religion which
had been taught ever since the time of Christ, 1,500 years before.
The difference between the Reformers, on the one side, and the
friends of the Pope, on the other, was not as to whether the Christian
religion should or should not be the religion of England, but as to
whether the way in which the Christian religion was then taught and
practised by the Pope, the priests, and those who agreed with the
Pope, were the right and true way or not.
There is not room in this book to set down all the matters about
which the two parties could not agree, nor, indeed, is it necessary to do
so, for some of the things about which people differed greatly at that
time are not very important now. But no one can understand the
history of England during the time of Henry VIII., Edward VI.,
1 The Bishop of Rome here means the Pope.
334 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Mary, and Elizabeth, who does not know what were the most im-
portant things about which Protestants and Roman Catholics disagreed.
At that time the Pope of Rome claimed to have the right to interfere
in the affairs of all the countries of Europe. He said that he was
Head of the Church in France, in Germany, and in England, and that he
alone had the right to say how the Church should be governed in each
of those countries. He did not say that he had the right to make or
alter the laws of England, but he did say that those who belonged in
any way to the Church were not under the laws of England, but under
the laws of the Church, and that the king's judges and the king's
courts had no power and no right to judge them if they were accused
of doing wrong.
The Pope also declared that many offences could only be punished
by the Church, and that the person who committed these offences
must be tried by the bishops, and not by the king's judges. He also
said that no bishop could be appointed in England without his leave.
Sometimes it had happened in the past that there had been a
quarrel between the Pope and the King of England, and then the
Pope, in order to punish the king, had forbidden the clergy in England
to hold services in the churches, and had commanded them not to
bury or to baptise people.
Thus, though the Pope lived far away in the city of Rome, in Italy,
he really had the power to interfere with the people of England, and
to do them harm when he wished. The kings of England had always
very much disliked any interference by the Pope, and the people of
England had generally been on the side of the King of England when
the king tried to get rid of the right of the Pope to meddle in the
affairs of their country.
The Reformers now said that the Pope ought no longer to be the
Head of the Church in England, and that he ought to have no power
to interfere with Englishmen, or to punish them for what they did, or
what they said, or what they thought.
The Reformers, therefore, believed that the Pope had no authority in
England. The Roman Catholics believed that the Pope had , and ought to
have, authority in this country in many matters. This, then, was one
great difference between the two parties.
335
Freedom of Opinion and Liberty of Conscience.
"It is a thing plainly repugnant1 to the Word of God, and the custom
of the Primitive Church,'2 to have publick Prayer in the Church, or to
minister the Sacraments, in a tongue not understanded of the people."-
Onc of the "Articles" or Rules of the Church of England agreed to in Queen
Elizabeth's time.
But there was a much more important difference than this. For
many years the Popes had claimed the right not only to judge men for
what they did, but for what they thought. They said that there was
only one true form of the Christian religion, and that was the form
which was taught by the Pope, the bishops, and the priests. No
man, they said, had a right to choose the form of his religion for
himself, and a man committed a sin if he did not believe exactly what
the Church taught him.
The Protestants, on the other hand, said that neither the Pope nor
the bishops had any right to say what a man or a woman should
believe. They said that every man ought to think for himself, and
to try and find out for himself what was right and true. They said
that the true religion was to be found in the Bible, and that the
teaching of the priests was not the teaching of ths Bible.
The Roman Catholics declared that the Pope and the bishops were
the only persons who had a right to say what was the true meaning
of the .Bible, or to decide what was right and wrong. The Protestants,
on the other hand, said that a man must read the Bible for himself,
and must understand it by the help of his own conscience. And
thus we see there was another great difference between the Protestants
and the Roman Catholics, for while the Roman Catholics said that
the Pope and the Church were the only true judges of what was
right and wrong, the Protestants held that each man had a right to
judge for himself, with the help of the Bible and of his own conscience.
The Roman Catholics had always been forbidden by the Pope
to translate the Bible into English, or to read it for themselves. Both
the Bible and the prayers which were read in the churches were in
Latin, and few people except the priests could understand them.
The Protestants declared that the words of the Bible were meant
for everybody to read and understand, and that, therefore, the Bible
1 " Repugnant to"— Contrary to.
8 " Primitive Church" — The Early Church in the first centuries after the death of Christ.
336
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
ought to be translated into a language which would be understood
by the people. One of the first things the Protestants did when
they got the power was to translate into English both the Bible
and the prayers which were used in the churches, so that everybody
might read and understand them.
It must not, however, be supposed that the Protestants believed
they needed no help to guide them, and that they were able by them-
selves to know what was right, or to do what was right. All true
Protestants believed that it was only by prayer to God that they
could be guided aright, and be enabled to do what was right. The
difference between them and the Roman Catholics in this matter
was that the Protestants believed that the guidance and help of God
would be given to every man, woman, and child who truly sought
for it, and that it was not necessary to go to a priest, to a bishop, or
to the Pope in order to learn what was God's will.
It was the Protestants who first claimed and won for us two great
liberties which all Englishmen now enjoy, namely, Freedom of
Opinion, that is the right to think what we please; and Liberty of
Conscience, that is the right to believe what we think right. We
shall see that the Protestants in their turn often refused to others
the liberties they had gained for themselves. Nevertheless no one can
doubt, that despite their mistakes, we owe much to those Protestants
who fought and suffered for freedom of thought in Queen Mary's time.
CHAPTER XLII.
MARY.
1553-1558.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF
QUEEN MARY.
Mary, Queen of England, daughter of Henry
VIII. and Catharine of Aragon, b.
1516. became Queen 1553, d. 1558.
Philip Of Spain, husband of Mary.
Elizabeth, sister of Mary, afterwards Queen
of England.
Lady Jane Grey, daughter of the Duke of
Suffolk, great-granddaughter of Henry
VII., executed 1554.
Lord Guilford Dudley, husband of Lady
Jane Grey, executed 1554.
John Dudley, Ouke of Northumberland,
father of Guilford Dudley, executed
I553-
Henry II., King of France.
fra nclB, son of Henry 1 1. , Dauphin of France,
husband of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Mary. Queen of Scots, m. Francis II. 1558.
337
Charles I., King or Spain, also known as the
Emperor Charles V., abdicated 1556,
d. 1558.
Philip II., King of Spain 1556, husband of
Mary.
Ferdinand I., Emperor 1556.
JuliUS III., Pope, d. 1555.
Paul IV., Pope, d. 1555.
Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester,
Mary's chief minister, d. 1555.
Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London.
Thomas Cranmer, Protestant Archbishop
of Canterbury, burned 1556.
Hugh Latimer, Protestant Bishop of \Voi-
cester, burned 1555.
Nicholas Ridley, Protestant Bishop of
London, burned 1555.
John Hooper, Protestant Bishop of Glou-
cester, burned 1555.
The Duke Of Guise, French General, took
Calais, 1558.
Sir Thomas Wyatt, leader of "Wyatt's
Rebellion," executed 1554.
John KnOX, the great Scottish Reformer.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF QUEEN MARY.
1553. Northumberland claims the Crown on 1554-
behalf of Lady Jane Grey.
Mary claims the Crown. 1555-
Northumberland executed.
Parliament repeals statutes of Edward 1556.
Counsellor discovers a passage round
the North Cape. I 1557.
Edmund Spenser, the poet, born.
Christ's Hospital founded.
1554. Wyatt's Rebellion. 1558.
Lady Jane Grey executed.
Mary marries Philip of Spain.
England reconciled to the Pope.
Philip forbidden to exercise any
authority in England.
Ridley and Latimer butned.
Bishop Gardiner dies.
Cranmer burned.
The Emperor Charles re-igns Spain and
its dependencies to Philip.
Russian ambassadors conclude a treaty
in London.
Bonner's persecut'on.
Mary, Queen of Scots marries the
Dauphin of France.
Loss of Calais.
Mary dies.
Queen Jane.
"Seventeen— a rose of grace!
Girl never breathed to rival such a rose :
Rose never blew that equal I'd such a bud,"
Tennyson: " Queen Mary."
No sooner was King Edward dead than there arose confusion and
conflict throughout the country. There were two great parties in
the land, each longing for power. On the one side were the Pro-
testants, the friends of the New Religion, under the leadership of the
Duke of Northumberland. On the other side were the friends of the
Old Religion, whose hopes were fixed upon Princess Mary,((il) the daughter
of Henry VIII. and Catharine of AragOn.
Northumberland wished to be first in the field, and to force people
to take his side before the friends of Mary had had time to collect.
He called the Council together, and proclaimed that the true and
rightful heir to the throne was his daughter-in-law, the Lady Jane Grey.17-'
At the same time orders were given that Mary should be taken
prisoner But Mary was too quick for the duke. A friend brought
333
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
her word of what was going on in the Council. Without a moment's
delay, she rode off to her friends in Norfolk, and thence to Fram-
lingham, a strongly fortified house in Suffolk, where she knew she was
safe from surprise.
If we look at the table on page 331, we shall see in a minute who
Lady Jane Grey was and what claim she had to the crown of England.
She was the great-granddaughter of Henry VII. and the daughter of
the Duke of Suffolk. By
right of descent, Mary
had a better claim to the
throne than Lady Jane
Grey, and so also had
Elizabeth, but both Mary
and Elizabeth had been
declared by Parliament
to be deprived of their
rights. Mary, too, was a
friend of the Old Religion,
and Northumberland
hoped that the people
would support him and
Lady Jane Grey, who
was a Protestant, against
Mary. We shall see
that he was mistaken.
If we look again at the
table on p. 331, we shall
see that there was
another person who had
a better claim to the
crown than Lady Jane
Grey, and that was Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots But it was not till
after the death of Queen Mary of England that Mary, Queen of Scots
put forward her claim to the throne.
Meanwhile the Duke of Northumberland had proclaimed Lady
Jane Grey to be Queen of England at- St. Paul's Cross, in London.
When the name of Queen Jane was read out by the herald, it was
received in silence ; nobody cheered or cried " God save the Queen."
An ostler boy in the crowd alone raised a cry against the new queen.
He was seized by the guards, and his ears were nailed to the pillory.
No one interfered on his behalf, but it was plain that Queen Jane
had few friends.
LADY JANE GREY.
QUEEN JANE, 339
The truth was that the people of London, and the greater part
of the people of England also, had no love at all for Northumberland,
nor did they care very much about the New Religion which he
supported. As long as King Edward had been on the throne and
had chosen to support the Protestants, the people kept pretty quiet ;
it was only those who had been injured by the breaking-up of the
monasteries who rose in rebellion. But now that they were asked to
fight for the New Religion, with Northumberland as their leader,
and against Mary, whom they looked upon as the true heir to the
crown, the people of England soon made up their minds what they
would do.
For it is quite plain that though in the time of Henry VIII.
Parliament had declared that neither Mary nor Elizabeth had any
right to come to the throne, most people in England paid no attention
at all to what Parliament had decided about the matter, and every-
body except a few friends and supporters of the Duke of Northum-
berland looked upon Mary as the only right and proper person to
be queen.
It was true that Mary belonged to the Old Religion, and that by
this time the new Protestant religion had spread very widely through
the country; but the time had not yet come when Englishmen were
ready, from one end of England to the other, to fight and die for
the Protestant religion. We shall see later on that such a time
did come, and we shall see, too, that no one did more to make the
English people Protestants, and fierce enemies of the Pope and his
friends, than Queen Mary herself, whom nearly all England was
now ready to welcome as queen.
But before we go on to the reign of Queen Mary, we must give
a little space to the short sad reign of a queen whose name is not
to be found in the list of the Kings and Queens of England.
The Death of Lady Jane Grey
Live still to die, that by death you may purchase eternal life."
Lady Jane Grey.
Little is left to mark the sad history of poor Queen Jane. But
Jane herself was such a sweet and good woman that we must not
altogether forget her or the part which she played in the history of
our country. She was but seventeen years old in the year which led
her to the crown and to her death.
34° HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
In these few years she had learnt much. She was a wonder of
learning, even at a time when young ladies of high rank were often
great scholars. She knew and could read Hebrew, Greek, and Latin,
and could write both of the two last-named languages. But this was
not all nor the best that could be said of Lady Jane Grey. She had
learnt to be a true Christian. Everything that is told of her makes
us love her as a pure-hearted, brave, and good Englishwoman.
But neither Jane's goodness nor her learning was enough to protect
her. She was indeed only an instrument in the hands of other
persons, who hoped to use her for their own ends, and what she
suffered she suffered for their crimes and not for her own. North-
umberland soon saw that if he were going to keep Mary from the
throne he must do something at once, for every day it became clearer
that the people were in favour of Mary and against him.
He set off with a small army to attack Mary in Suffolk. He hoped
that many friends would come and join him, but none came. On
the contrary, from all sides the lords and gentlemen of the eastern
counties came forward to fight for the true queen.
The duke soon saw that his cause was lost. He gave himself
up, and acknowledged Mary as the rightful queen. His cowardice,
however, did not save him. He was sent to the Tower, and was
there beheaded on August 22nd, 1553. He died hated by both parties,
for in the hope of saving his life he declared that he was no longer
a Protestant, but a believer in the old religion. Thus, after ruining
his Protestant friends, he deserted them as soon as he felt his own life
in danger. It is not wonderful that while his enemies despised him,
those who had been his friends hated him.
Lady Jane Grey and her husband, Lord Guilford Dudley, were
both imprisoned in the Tower. At first it seemed as if their lives
would be spared; »and perhaps they might have been allowed to live
if it had not been that a rising among the Protestants took place
in the county of Kent, under Sir Thomas Wyatt, and that those
who took part in it declared that they were fighting for Queen Jane.
Alarmed at this new danger, Mary and her councillors decided that
Jane should be put to death.
A priest was sent by the order of Queen Mary to try to win
Lady Jane to the Roman Catholic religion. Lady Jane treated the
priest, who -was an old man, with courtesy and kindness, but she said
that she did not wish to hear him, that her mind was made up, and
that she wished to die as she had lived, in the Protestant faith. She
was sure of her own courage, but she was not so sure about that
of others who were dear to her. She wrote and begged her husband
LADY JANE GREY ON HER WAY TO THE SCAFFOLD.
342 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
not to follow the bad example which had been set him by the Duke
of Northumberland and not to forsake his religion under the fear
of death.
Her sweetness won the heart even of her gaolers. To Sir John
Brydges, the Governor of the Tower, she gave a small book of English
prayers. The book can still be seen. Sir John asked his prisoner
to write a few words in it. These are the words which Queen Jane
wrote : —
" Forasmuch as you have desired so simple a woman to write in
so worthy a book, good master lieutenant, therefore I shall as a friend
desire you, and as a Christian require you, to call upon God and incline
your heart to His laws, to quicken you in His way, and not to take the
truth utterly out of your mouth. Live still to die, that by death you may
purchase eternal life.'" Her husband, Guilford Dudley, was to be
executed before her. She was asked if she would like to see him.
She said, No : if it would profit either of them she would see him ;
otherwise she would wait for her death alone.
When she came to the foot of the scaffold, she sprang up the
steps, and said that she had broken the law in accepting the crown ;
but as to any guilt of intention she wrung her hands, and said she
washed them clean of it in innocency before God and man. She
" died a true Christian woman."
This is how the rest of the story is told in the Chronicle of Queen
Mary : —
" The hangman kneeled down and asked her forgiveness, which she forgave most
willingly. Then he willed her to stand upon the straw, which doing, she saw the block.
Then she said, ' I pray you despatch me quickly.' Then she kneeled down, saying,
' Will you take it off before I lay me down ? ' and the hangman answered, ' No, madam.'
She tied a kercher about her eyes ; then feeling for the block, she said, 'What shall I
do ? where is it ? ' One of the by-standers guiding her thereunto, she laid down her
head upon the block, and stretched forth her body, and said, ' Lord, into Thy hands I
commend my spirit.' And so ended."
"In Time of Persecution."
"The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church."
The rising which had taken place, and which led to the death of'
Lady Jane Grey, was put down after some difficulty. The rebels, under
Sir Thomas Wyatt, got as far as London, and actually reached the
walls of the city. Wyatt hoped that the Londoners would rise to help
QUEEN MARY.
(Frcm a tainting by Lucas D'Heere, in the Possession of the Society of Antiquaries.}
344 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
him, but in this he was disappointed. The Londoners we're true to the
queen, and Wyatt was taken prisoner and executed (1554).
But though Wyatt had not succeeded, the causes which had led
him and his friends to take up arms were very serious, and were soon
felt to be serious not only in the county of Kent but throughout the
whole of England. We have seen that the people of England were not
at this time ready to fight for or against the old religion or the new.
Indeed, they were for the most part content to let their kings and
queens settle what should be the religion of the country very much as
they pleased. The only thing which they wanted was not to be too
much interfered with themselves.
But although the greater part of the people of England were at this
time content to accept what the king or queen might choose, there
were on both sides men who were not at all of this way of thinking,
and who were determined, whatever it might cost, to win a victory for
their own party. On both sides there were men and women who
believed that the religion to which they belonged was the only true
one, and that those who did not agree with them were not only in the
wrong, but were wicked people who ought to be put down for the good
of the country and for the sake of true religion.
On the one side, the Reformers never ceased to teach and to preach
the reformed doctrines, and to attack the Pope and the Pope's party.
On the other side, the friends of the Pope and of the old religion
were as earnest in teaching and preaching what they believed to be
right, and in declaring that nothing could be worse or more wicked
than to listen to or believe in the new doctrines.
On both sides there were men and women who were ready to
give up their own lives readily for the sake of what they believed to
be right ; and, alas ! there were also men and women on both sides
equally ready to take the lives of others who did not agree with them,
in the vain hope that by persecution they could make men change their
views and give up what they believed to be right.
Happily, we understand much more clearly nowadays than men did
in the reign of Queen Mary, that the very worst way to make people
give up their opinions about what they believe to be right, and their
duty, is to persecute them and to make them suffer. We have learnt
that persecution is much more likely to make people — especially
English people — cling to what they think than to make them give
up their opinions.
We have learnt, too, that the very sight of men and women suffering
for saying and thinking what they honestly believe to be right, often
makes people sorry for those who suffer and angry with those who
THE SPANISH MARRIAGE.
345
cause the suffering. In this way it often happens that persecution,
instead of stopping men from teaching and thinking as they please,
brings them friends whom they would never have had if they had been
left alone, and makes men sorry for them who would have taken no
notice of them if they had not been persecuted.
The Spanish Marriage.
"// thl-s man marry our queen, he will be king, King of England, my
masters ; and the queen, and the laws, and the people, his slaues, What ?
shall we have Spain on the throne and in the Parliament ; Spain in the pulpit
and on the law-bench ; Spain in all the great offices of State; Spain in
our ships, in our forts, in our houses?" — Tennyson: " Queen Mary."
The causes which had led to the rebellion of the Kentish men under
Sir Thomas Wyatt were twofold, and it is necessary to understand
what they were, because they were the same causes which led to many
other troubles during Queen Mary's reign.
It must be remembered that Mary was
the first queen who had ever reigned of. her
own right over England, and when she
became the sovereign of the country, a
difficulty arose which had never arisen
before. It had been easy to find a wife
for the King of England, for though the
king's wife was always called The Queen, she
had no power in the government of the
country. It did not matter whether she
were a foreigner like Catharine of Aragon,
or an Englishwoman like Jane Seymour.
But now a very different question arose.
The sovereign of the country was a woman,
and it was necessary to find a husband for
her. Who was the queen's husband to be, and what power was he to
have over the government of the country ? Was he to be called The
King P And if so, was he to rule England as King Henry or King
Edward had ruled it ? Was he to be a foreigner or an Englishman ?
Whichever he might be, it seemed as if there would be danger, for
if he were a foreigner there was no knowing what power he might not
get over the queen, power which he would very likely use for the good
of a foreign country, and not for the good of England. On the other
A SHILLING OF PHILIP
AND MARY.
For ever amorous and billing.
Like Philip and Mary on a
shilling."
BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.
346 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
hand, if he were an Englishman, he must be chosen from among the
queen's subjects, and then it was certain that there would be jealousy
and strife among all the great nobles in the country when they saw one
of their number picked out and made a king over them.
While the people of England were puzzling over this difficult
question, Queen Mary herself settled it without asking anybody's advice,
and settled it in what was perhaps the worst way in which it could
have been settled ;
the worst for herself
and the worst for her
country. It is not
strange that the queen
should feel that the
choosing of a husband
was her own affair,
for no woman in the
world likes to have
her husband chosen
for her.
But it is one of the
disadvantages of being
a king or a queen that
in matters like this
a great many other
people are concerned
besides the bride and
bridegroom. The per-
son whom Mary chose
for her husband was
Philip of Spain, son»of
the Emperor Charles
V. It was not won-
PH1LIP »• derful that she should
wish to marry Philip.
It must not be forgotten that her own mother, Catharine, had been
a Spaniard, and that Mary had received far more kindness from her
Spanish relations than from her English relations. Philip would
shortly become King of Spain, and, moreover, the King of Spain was
one of the greatest Roman Catholic sovereigns in Eurrpe, a friend of
the Pope, and of the old religion in which Mary believed so firmly, and
in which she had been brought up.
But the very things which made Mary welcome Philip as a husband
THE OXFORD MARTYRS. 347
made the English people detest him. In the first place he was a
foreigner, and the English did not like foreigners, or wish them to have
any power in England. In the second place, Philip was a Spaniard,
and the Spaniards were particularly disliked in England.
Already the English merchants and adventurers had begun to
come to blows with the Spaniards in America and in other parts of
the world, and already they were beginning to dispute with them
the possession of some of the rich territory of the newly-discovered
countries. And more than this, the Spaniards had already begun
that persecution of the Protestants which afterwards made them so
justly hated by Reformers in all parts of Europe. English people
feared that the new king would not be long in setting up in this country
the cruel court which was known in Spain as The Holy Inquisition.
This Court of the Inquisition was made up of bishops and priests
acting under the direction of the Pope, and its business was to try
people for their opinions, and to» see whether they believed what the
Pope declared to be the only true opinions. Those who were found
guilty by the Inquisition were often punished in the most cruel way,
and were frequently tortured to make them confess what their judges
wanted them to confess.
We shall see that Englishmen were right in fearing that Philip
would try and bring into England the plan which he had adopted in
Spain. It was not wonderful that, having this fear in their minds,
they should have disliked the queen's choice of a husband. But the
marriage of Queen Mary with Philip of Spain was not the only thing
which had stirred up those who joined in Wyatt's rebellion, and which
had made many other Englishmen who had not joined in the rebellion
angry and discontented.
The Oxford Martyrs.
" Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man ; we shall this
day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall neuer
be put out." — Bishop Latimer at the Stake.
When Mary first came to the throne it was clear to everyone that she
intended to bring back the Old Religion in which she had been brought
up, and to which she was so much attached. It seemed a natural
thing that just as Edward VI., or rather those who advised Edward
VI., had dismissed the bishops who refused to admit that the king
348 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
was the true head of the Church, and had replaced them by men like
Cranmer, so Mary should now turn out Cranmer and Latimer, and put
back Gardiner and Bonner in their places.
If no more than this had been done, perhaps the Protestants would
have remained quiet. But it soon became plain that Mary meant to
go much further, and not only to set up the Old Religion again, but
to make everybody admit that the Old Religion was the only true
religion.
On the 25th July, 1554, Mary was married to Philip at Winchester.
It was decided that Philip was to be called king, but that he was to
have no right to interfere with the making of laws, or with the
government of the country. The English people were wisely deter-
mined that if they were to have a foreign king, he should have no
power to meddle with their concerns.
It soon became clear, however, that it was easier to say that the
king should have no power than to prevent him from using the
power which he got through being the queen's husband. Mary was
very fond of Philip, much fonder than Philip was of her, and it soon
became evident that what the king wished the queen was only too
ready to command. It was plain, moreover, that the king and
queen were of the same mind about one thing — and that was putting
down the Protestants.
Parliament, which, as usual at this time, did pretty much what
the king or queen happened to order, declared that the Pope was
the only true head of the Church, that all that had been said and
done to the contrary by Henry VIII. and Edward VI. was wrong
and of no account, and that every man who refused to obey the new
law might be put to death. The Protestant bishops and clergy-
men were turned out of their places, and Cranmer, the Archbishop
of Canterbury; Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester; Latimer, Bishop of
Worcester; and Ridley, Bishop of London, were thrown into prison.
Urged on by Philip, Mary gave orders that the cruel persecution
which had begun in Spain should be continued in England. In
many parts of England men and women who were known to be
Protestants were brought before the Roman Catholic bishops for
trial, and were asked by them if they would consent to give up
their belief and go back to the Old Religion. Hundreds of brave
men and women were found who declared that neither the fear of
imprisonment nor of death would make them give up their religion,
or say that they believed what in their hearts they thought to be
false.
For such as these there was no mercy. No less than 280 persons
THE OXFORD MARTYRS.
349
were burned to death in various parts of England for refusing to
give up their religion.
Among those who thus died were the three bishops — Latimer,
Ridley, and Hooper. Hooper was burned at Gloucester, Latimer and
THK MARTYRS MEMORIAL, OXFORD.
Ridley at Oxford. These brave and good men met their death with
a courage which did more for the cause of the Protestants than many
sermons or many learned books could ever do. They met their
judges and reasoned with them without fear, and sought neither
mercy nor pardon.
356 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Ridley was the first tried and condemned to death. Then Latimer,
an old man of eighty, was brought before the judges. His appear-
ance as he stood there before the men who he knew had made up
their minds to condemn him to a cruel death is thus described : —
" Latimer was then brought in — eighty years old now — dressed in an
old threadbare gown of Bristol frieze, a handkerchief on his head
with a nightcap over it, and over that again another cap, with two
broad flaps buttoned under the chin. A leather belt was round his
waist, to which a Testament was attached; his spectacles, without
a case, hung from his neck."
It is well to try and picture to ourselves the brave old bishop, as
he stood awaiting his sentence. Many other brave and good men
died in the times about which we are reading, because they would
not say what they believed to be untrue, and because they would
not give up the religion which they loved. v Among them were both
Protestants and Roman Catholics. On whichever side they were,
we cannot read of their sufferings without admiring them for their
courage and their love of what they thought to be the truth. But
among all who suffered, none better deserves to be remembered
than this old man of eighty, in his threadbare gown of Bristol frieze,
standing up boldly before his judges after two long, weary years
in prison.
Indeed, the names of Latimer and Ridley have always lived in
the memory of Englishmen; and if we who read about them now
admire them, and feel sorry for them what must those Englishmen
have thought who saw them die at the%stake in Oxford ?
It was on the i6th October, 1555, that the two bishops were
burned. As the torch was put to the faggots, Latimer spoke, and
the words which he spoke will always be remembered. "Be of good
comfort, Master Ridley" said the brave old bishop, " and play the man;
-we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I
trust shall never be put out.'11
Latimer's last words proved to be true. The persecution of
those who died for their faith helped the people of England to
understand how great a cause these men were fighting for. The
right of men and women to think as they please, to worship God in
what way they think right, and to believe what their own conscience
tells them to be true, is now no longer disputed in our country. We
owe much of the liberty which we enjoy to the men who first " lighted
the candle" of which Latimer spoke, and who taught Englishmen
that it was better for a man to die than to give up the right to do
what his conscience told him was his duty.
THE DEATH OF CRANMER. 351
In St. Giles', at Oxford, stands a tall monument. It is called the
Martyrs' Memorial, and commemorates the burning of Latimer and
Ridley, which took place close by, in Broad Street.
The Death of Cranmer.
"The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
Matt. xxvi. 41.
It was not till the next year (1556) that Archbishop Cranmer was put to
death. The friends of the queen tried hard to get him to confess that
he had been in the wrong, and that the Old Religion was, after all,
the only true one. They hoped that he would do as Northumberland
had done, and give up his opinions in the hope of saving his life.
They felt sure that if the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had done
so much to set up the Protestant Church, were to confess that he
were in the wrong, and to beg for the queen's mercy, all those who
had taken the side of the Reformers would feel that a great blow
had been struck at their cause.
At first it seemed as if the queen's friends were going to get
what they wanted. Wearied out by imprisonment, and with the
fear of death before him, Cranmer consented to sign a paper in
which he admitted that he had been in the wrong, and that the New
Religion was a false one. But this did not save his life. Mary
decided that he should be put to death, after all. Then when he saw
that it was too late to hope for life, the archbishop's courage came
back to him, and with it there came a feeling of shame that he had
ever denied the truths which he had for so long taught to others.
When he was called upon to declare before all the people that
he had given up the Protestant religion, and that he now believed
all that was in the paper which he had signed, he said openly that
he had not changed his opinion, that when he had signed the paper he
had done so in fear of death and in the hope of saving his life ;
no other thing that he had ever done in his life troubled him so much
as having written things which were contrary to the truth ; the hand
which had signed the paper had most offended, and therefore it should
be the first to suffer in the flames. " The Pope," he said, " / utterly
refuse, with all his false doctrine." On the 2ist March he was put
to death. True to his word, he thrust his right hand, the hand which
had signed the paper, first into the (lames, where it was consumed.
352
OF ENGLAND.
All over the country many other Protestants, not so well known
as Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley, but not less brave, were put to death
because they would not admit that the Pope was head of the Church
in England, and had the right to settle their religion for them.
That Mary really thought she was doing what was right, in
persecuting and putting to death those who did not agree with her, is
quite certain. She
truly believed that
she was doing what
was her duty as a
queen and as a
Christian woman ;
and however ter-
rible and hateful
we may think her
actions to have
been, we must not
forget that they
seemed very dif-
ferent to her than
they do to us now-
adays. But though
Mary thought that
it was right to per-
secute and burn
the enemies of
the Pope, the peo-
ple of England, or
at any rate the
greater part of
them, soon made
up their minds that
what she did was
wrong and hateful.
Many of those who were of the same religion as the queen had
no love either for the Pope, or for Philip the queen's Spanish husband,
and they would much rather have seen their neighbours allowed
to follow their own religion, as long as they did not interfere with
others. Many who before had cared little about the New Religion,
and had had little love for those who preached it, or for those
who believed in it, began to take sides with the men whom they
saw persecuted and ill-treated.
ARCHRISHOP CRANMER.
• THE Loss OF CALAIS. 353
The Protestants themselves, from one end of England to the
other, instead of being frightened by the persecution which the
queen hoped would make them change their religion, became angry
instead, and determined never to rest until they had got rid of a
queen who had a Spanish husband, and who believed that the Pope
had the right to interfere with the lives of the people of England.
The Loss of Calais.
"Alas I
That gateway to the mainland over which
Our flag hath floated for two hundred years
Is France again." Tennyson: "Queen Mary"
Before long Mary, who had begun her reign with the good
wishes of by far the greater part of her subjects, came to be more
and more disliked every year. Nor did the queen's troubles end
with the hatred which followed the persecution of the Protestants.
She had other matters which interfered with her happiness and
peace of mind even more than the ill-will of her subjects. Her
husband Philip had never loved her. He was eleven years younger
than the queen, and he had been brought up to a very different
sort of life from that which he was compelled to lead in England.
In Spain, Philip, as the son of the Emperor Charles, and as the
future King of Spain, was a very great person, and everybody was
anxious to please him. In England, on the other hand both nobles
and common people hated him because he was a foreigner and because
he was a Spaniard ; the Protestants also hated him because he was
their bitter enemy, and one of the strongest supporters of the
Pope. Mary was very fond of her husband, but he did not return
her affection ; he cared little for her serious way of living, and
he sought every opportunity of going away from her.
He soon had a good reason for leaving her. In the third year
of Queen Mary's reign (1556), Charles V., Philip's father, tired of ruling
a great kingdom, gave up his crown, and went to live for the rest
of his days in a. monastery. Philip now became King of Spain, and
he was glad to return once more to his own country, leaving Mary
sorrowing over his absence. Only once did he come back to England,
and then but for a short time.
M
354 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
But though he had left the country he was still able to do it
harm. Spain was at war with France, and Philip called upon the
Queen of England to help him in his quarrel. Mary joined in the
war to please her husband, and against the wish of most of her
subjects.
But it seemed as if nothing could prosper in this unhappy reign.
The English troops took but little part in the war ; they helped
Philip in a battle fought at St. Quentin, in which the Spanish and
English troops won a victory. But a very short time afterwards
the fortune of the war turned, and England suffered a loss which
seemed to those who were living at that time to be one of the most
shameful that could befall the country.
The Duke of Guise, the French general, marched with a strong army
against Calais, the last of the English possessions in France. After a
short siege of a week the town surrendered (1558). Two hundred
and eleven years before, Edward III. had taken it after a siege
of eleven months. When all else was lost to England of the great
possessions which she had once held in France, Calais remained ;
and now that it had been lost, all England felt that a great disgrace
had overtaken the country. No one felt this more than the unhappy
queen herself. It is said that when the news of the fall of Calais
reached her she was overcome with grief. " When I die," she said,
"you will find the word 'Calais' written upon my heart."
It was not wonderful that Englishmen at the time should mourn
over the loss of the town which they had kept for so long, but there
can be no doubt that it was really a very good thing, not only for
France but for England, that the Duke of Guise succeeded in winning
back the place.
There would never have been any lasting peace between England
and France as long as Englishmen kept a part of the land of France.
The French would always have been wanting to fight us whenever
they got a chance, in order to get back their own land. Nor could
we have blamed them if they had, for it is to be hoped that no
Englishman would ever rest quiet if Frenchmen were to take, and
try to keep, any piece of British land, however small or however
distant.
But, as has been said, the people of England were very angry
and very sad at the time, and they laid the blame for the loss, of
Calais upon Mary's Spanish husband, who had dragged England
into a war in which she had no concern.
Deserted by her husband, disliked by her people, unsuccessful in
war, Mary now felt that all her plans had failed. The Pope, whom
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
she had all her life done her best to serve, had taken the side of
France against Spain, and therefore was her enemy. Philip, for
whom she had offended her people, and for whose sake she had
undertaken the unlucky war with France, had left her; and, worst
of all, she now knew that she was dying, and that she would leave
no child to come after her on the throne.
This would have been bad enough in itself, but it was made far
worse when she remembered that the next heir to the throne was
the daughter of Anne Boleyn, her sister Elizabeth, whom she hated,
and who was the favourite of the Protestants whom she had so long
fought against and persecuted.
On the iyth November, 1558, in the, sixth year of her reign, Queen
Mary died after a painful illness. She was forty-two years old when
she died. Her reign, which began so hopefully for herself and her
friends, ended in gloom and disappointment for all those who had
taken her part or who wished her well. Few women have tried
harder to do what they thought right than Queen Mary, and it
would be unfair to forget this when we read the story of her reign,
and of the cruel things that were done by her orders.
But the reign of Queen Mary has always been held to have
been one of the most hateful and miserable in our history, and justly
so. There were few in • all England who felt any sorrow when
the news came that the queen was dead. The people of England
who had seen the cruel things that had been done among them, the
burnings and the persecutions which had made the land wretched,
spoke of her by the name by which she will always be remembered
in English history.
CHAPTER XLIII.
ELIZABETH-THE PROTESTANT QUEEN.
1558-1603.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN
ELIZABETH.
Elizabeth, Queen of England, daughter of
Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, b.
1533, became Queen 1558, d. 1603.
Henry II., King of France, d. 1559.
Francis II., King of France, son of Henry II.,
husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, d.
1560.
Charles IX., King of France, brother of
Francis II., d. 1574.
Henry III., King of France, brother of
Francis and Charles, a suitor of Eliza-
beth under the name of Duke of
Anjou, murdered 1589.
Henry IV. (Henry of Navarre), King of
France.
Philip II., King of Spain, brother-in-law of
Elizabeth, d 1598.
Philip III., son of Philip II., King of Spain,
357
Ferdinand I., Emperor, d. 1564.
Maximilian II., son of Ferdinand I., Em-
peror, d. 1576.
Rudolph II., son of Maximilian II., Emperor.
Mary, Queen of Scots, executed 1587.
James VI., King of Scotland, son of Mary,
afterwards James I. of England and
Scotland.
The Earl Of Murray, Regent of Scotland,
murdered 1570.
Paul IV., Pope, d. 1559.
PlUS IV., Pope, d. 1566.
PiUS V., Pope d. 1572.
Gregory XIII., Pope, d. 1585.
SixtUS V., Pope, died 1590.
Urban ViL, Pope, d. 1590.
Gregory XIV., Pope, d. 1591.
Innocent IX , Pope, d. 1592.
Clement VIll, Pope.
Elizabeth's Chief Ministers :-
William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, b.
1520, d. 1598.
Sir Francis Walsingham, b. 1536,
d. 1590.
Sir Nicholas Bacon, b. 1510, d. 1579.
Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury,
son of Lord Burleigh, b. 1550.
John KnOX, Scottish Reformer, d. 1572.
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester,
minister and favourite of the queen,
d. 1588.
Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, minister
and favourite of the queen, executed
1601.
Great Seamen and Soldiers:—
Sir Walter Raleigh, b. 1552.
Lord Howard of Effingham, Lord
High Admiral of England, b. i53*>.
Sir John Hawkins, b. 1520, d. 1596.
Sir Martin Frobisher, d. 1594.
John Davis.
Sir Francis Drake, b. 1545, d. 1596.
Sir Richard Grenville, b. 1540, d.
Sir59Philip Sidney, b. 1554, killed at
Zutphen, 1586.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, b. 1539, d.
Great Writers :—
William Shakespeare, b. 1564, d.
1616.
Edmund Spenser, b. 1553, d- I599-
Ben Jonson, b. 1574.
Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Albans,
son of Nicholas Bacon, b. 1561.
Sir Philip Sidney, b. 1554, d. 1586.
Christopher Marlow, d. 1593.
Richard Hooker d. 1600.
Ralph Holinshed, the chronicler, d.
1581-
John Foxe, author of " The Book of
Martyrs," d. 1587.
John StOW, author of " Stow's Chro-
nicle," d. 1605.
John Fletcher, b. 1576.
Philip Massinger, b. 1583.
Francis Beaumont, b. 1584.
John Ford, b. 1586.
Great Painters :-
Michael AngelO, Florentine, d 1564.
Titian, Venetian, d. 1576.
Tintoretto, Venetian, d. 1594.
Henry Damley, m. Mary, Queen of Scots
1565, murdered 1567.
James, Earl Of Bothwell m. Mary, Queen
of Scots 1567, d. 1578.
William Lee, inventor of stocking-frames.
Sir Edward Coke, Chief Justice of England,
the great lawyer, b. 1552.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF QUEEN ELIZABETH.
1558. Elizabeth becomes Queen.
Nicholas Bacon, Chancellor. Sir W.
Cecil, Secretary of State. <
Elizabeth discontinues mass in favour
of English service.
1559. The Roman Catholic bishops refuse to
officiate at the coronation.
The Pope denies Elizabeth's right to
the crown.
A Protestant Parliament.
Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity
passed.
Francis II., husband of Mary, Queen
of Scots, becomes King of France.
John Knox promotes the Reformation
in Scotland.
1560. Elizabeth sends a fleet to help the
Scottish Reformers.
Treaty of Edinburgh signed. The
French commissioners agree that
Mary shall renounce her claim to the
throne of England.
Mary and Francis refuse to recognise
the surrender of the commissioners.
Shan O'Neil's rebellion in Ireland.
Westminster School founded.
Francis II. of France dies.
1561. Mary goes to Scotland.
Dudley becomes Elizabeth's favourite.
Francis Bacon born.
1562. Elizabeth has small-pox.
Civil war in France.
1563. A subsidy voted for troops in France.
Elizabeth avoids settling the question
of succession.
1564. Rizzio becomes Mary's favourite.
William Shakespeare born.
The Puritans first begin to be heard
of.
Michael Angelo dies. Calvin dies.
1565. Mary marries Darnley.
1566. Murder of Rizzio.
1567. Parliament dissolved.
Murder of Darnley.
Mary marries Bothwell. Flight of
Bothwell.
Mary captured at Carberry HiU. Re-
signs crown.
The Earl of Murray, Regent of Scot-
land.
358
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
1567. The revolt of the Netherlands against
Spain.
The Royal Exchange founded.
Rugby School founded.
1568. Escape of Mary from Loch Leven.
Arrested in England.
Alva's persecution in the Netherlands.
Mary removed from Bolton to Hampton
Court, thence to Tutbury.
1569. Mary removed to Coventry.
Insurrection in the North, led by West-
moreland and Dacre.
1570. The Pope excommunicates Elizabeth,
and commands her subjects not to
obey her.
A man posting the Pope's bull in London
is hanged.
The Regent Murray murdered.
1571. Parliament claims the right of free
speech.
Mary's friends seize Edinburgh Castle.
Harrow School founded.
Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of
England adopted.
The battle of Lepanto. The Austrians
under Don John defeat the Turkish
fleet.
1572. The Duke of Norfolk executed.
Henry of Navarre marries Margaret of
France.
Massacre of St. Bartholomew.
John Knox dies.
1573. Elizabeth supports the Netherlands.
Siege of La Rochelle.
The city of Manila, in the East Indies,
built by the Spaniards.
1574. Charles IX. of France dies.
Ben Jonson, the great poet, born.
1575. The Netherlands offer sovereignty to
Elizabeth.
The Prince of Orange appointed Stadt-
holder.
1576. Henry of Navarre becomes a Protestant.
The great painter Titian dies of Plague
in Venice.
Martin Frobisher sails to discover the
North- West passage.
Wentworth imprisoned for his speech
in the House of Commons.
1577. Drake begins his voyage round the
world.
1578. English auxiliaries assist the Dutch.
The Pope sends troops to assist the
Roman Catholics in Ireland.
Norwegians try to interfere with English
commerce. Elizabeth asserts right of
free navigation.
Drake explores California.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert plants the colony
of Virginia.
1579. The seven provinces of the Netherlands
combine against the Spaniards.
Elizabeth enters into a treaty with the
Sultan. The Turkey Company esta-
blished.
1580. The Duke of Anjou offers marriage to
Elizabeth.
Elizabeth imprisons Leicester.
Lirake returns and is kniehted
The Papal and Spanish troops defeated
in Ireland.
1581. Jesuit plots against Elizabeth.
The University of Edinburgh founded.
Ralph Holinshed, the chronicler, dies.
1582. Elizabeth dismisses her suitor the Duke
of Anjou.
Correction cf the calendar by Gregory
XIII.
1583. Elizabeth claims sovereignty over New-
foundland.
James of Scotland escapes from confine-
ment in England.
1584. Conspiracies against Elizabeth. A
national association formed to defend
her.
Second expedition to Virginia under
Raleigh.
The Prince of Orange murdered.
Henry of Navarre becomes heir to the
crown of France.
1585. The Earl of Leicester sent with troops
to the United Provinces.
Drake and Frobisher attack the Spanish
possessions in the West Indies.
Ambassadors from Japan received at
Rome.
Cond6 with an English fleet relieves
Rochelle.
Antwerp surrenders to the Spaniards.
Davis explores North-East America.
Coaches first used in England.
Cardinal Richelieu, afterwards the great
French minister, b. Sept. 5.
1586. Battle of Zutphen. Death of Sir Philip
Sidney.
1587. Mary, Queen of Sc^ts beheaded.
Philip prepares to invade England.
Pope Sixtus issues a Bull and preaches
a crusade against England.
Drake destroys the Spanish fleet at
Cadiz.
1588. The Spanish Armada sails.
The Earl of Leicester dies.
The Armada destroyed.
1589. Kiqg James of Scotland marries Anne
of Denmark.
Henry of Navarre takes title of King of
France.
The stocking-frame invented.
1590. The first paper mill in England esta-
blished at Dartford.
The Battle of Ivry.
1591. An English army under Essex sent to
help Henry IV. of France.
Trinity College, Dublin, founded by
Elizabeth.
1592. The Cathedral of St. Mark at Venice
built.
I593- Wentworth imprisoned, and three other
members of the House of Commons.
Henry IV. of France becomes a Roman
Catholic.
Alliance between Elizabeth and Henry
IV.
1594. Spanish attempts to murder Elizabeth.
Henry IV. enters Paris.
The Falkland Isles discovered.
359
1598. The Edict of Nantes, giving protection
to the Protestants in France, issued
by Henry IV.
Elizabeth refuses to make peace with-
out the Netherlands.
Lord Burleigh dies.
Shakespeare performs his own plays in
London.
1599. Essex di.egraced.
Spenser dies.
Oliver Cromwell born.
1600. Trial and pardon of Essex. [bcrn.
Charles Stuart (afterwards Charles I.)
The East India Company founded.
Inquiries into electricity by Dr. W.
Gilbert, of Colchester.
1601. Insurrection and execution of Essex.
The Spaniards land at Kinsale.
The Earl of Tyrone's rebellion sup-
pressed by Mountjoy.
Monopolies abolished by Elizabeth.
English factories established on the
Malabar coast of India.
The Poor Law of the forty-third year
of Elizabeth passed.
Robert Cecil negotiates with James as
to succession.
1603. Elizabeth dies, aged 69,
Good Queen Bess."
GARTER KING-AT-ARMS.— " Heauen, from thy endless goodness, send pros-
perous life, long, and ever happy, to the High and Mighty Princess of
England, Elizabeth !" — Shakespeare : "Henry VIII*
"Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us,
God save the Queen I "
Henry Carey : "God save the Queen."
WE now come to the story of the reign of one of the most famous
of all the sovereigns of England. The name of Queen Elizabeth, (6:J) or of
" Good Queen Bess," as her people called her, is justly held in honour by
Englishmen. It is true that Elizabeth did many things which appear
to us cruel and harsh, and that she can be fairly charged with being
mean in some things, and deceitful in others. More than once she
used her power and her high position to injure those of whom she was
jealous or whom she feared. But when all that can be said against
Queen Elizabeth has been said, we must still admit that she was a
wonderful woman and a great queen.
Whatever mistakes she made, there was one mistake which
Elizabeth was never guilty of. She never forgot that she was Queen
of England, and that it was her duty to make England great, prosperous,
and respected.
Edward VI. had tried to reign as king of the Protestants of England,
Mary as queen of the Roman Catholics of England. But from the very
beginning of her reign, Elizabeth tried to reign, not as queen of this
party or of that, but as queen of all the people of England. As long as
people served her faithfully, obeyed the laws which she approved, and
were true to the country, she was true to them. Her faults were best
360
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
known to those who lived near her, and who had much to do with her ;
but it was her virtues and not her faults which English men and
English women who did not live at the Court saw and understood.
The accession of the new queen was the signal for rejoicing through-
out the land. Men of all parties were tired of the cruelties and the
misfortunes of Mary's reign, and there was but one . cry heard as
Elizabeth rode into London — it was the cry of " God save the Queen."
Parliament, in the time of Henry VIII., had passed an Act declaring
that Elizabeth had no right to come to the throne. But by a later Act
the King had been given power to declare in his will who should succeed
him, and he had actually made a will naming Elizabeth as Queen in due
QUEEN ELIZABETH'S SIGNATURE.
course. Now nearly everyone was glad to see Elizabeth on the throne,
safe and well, for during Mary's reign her life had often been in danger.
Mary was, above all things, a friend of the Pope : Elizabeth had
been brought up in the Reformed Religion, and was the hope of all
those who belonged to it. During her sister's reign, Elizabeth had
really been kept prisoner, first in one place and then in another. The
Pope's party had over and over again tried to find her out in some
plot against Queen Mary, or to prove that she was trying to upset
the Old Religion. But Elizabeth had been wise and wary. She had
taken care not to give offence, or to do anything which might give
her enemies power over her, and thus she had managed to escape
safely through all the dangers which had threatened her.
It was, perhaps, a good thing for Elizabeth that she had been a
prisoner while she was young, and that she had learnt what was meant
by the religious persecutions which had gone on all around her.
When she came to be queen, .she showed a caution and a wisdom
which were not to be expected in so young a woman.
THE QUEEN'S MINISTERS. 361
As soon as the news of Queen Mary's death was known, Elizabeth
was brought up from Hatfield, where she was staying, and was at once
recognised as queen by all parties. She was twenty-five years old
when she came to the throne, and seldom was any woman, whether
queen or not, better provided with learning and accomplishments,.
She had studied deeply history, philosophy, and poetry. She wrote,
and wrote well, English, French, Italian, Latin, and Greek. She was
a beautiful dancer, and could play and read music.
Whether at any time of her life she were really beautiful, it is hard
to say. If we were to believe all that her flatterers said and wrote
about her, we must believe that she was the most beautiful creature
that ever lived upon earth. If, on the other hand, we are to take as
true all the unkind things that were said of her by her enemies, we
shall think of her as a plain, awkward, dried-up little shrew, who had
no beauty in anybody's eyes except her own.
The pictures of Queen Elizabeth do not tell us very much, for, in
the first place, they are not all alike, and, in the second place, pictures
can flatter as well as courtiers ; though, to tell the truth, if we are to
judge by the pictures only, we shall not think that Elizabeth was a
very beautiful woman. It seems most likely that the real Elizabeth
was something between what her friends on the one side, and her
enemies on the other, declared her to be.
When she was young she was probably bright, graceful, and
dignified, and most people were ready to think that a graceful young
queen, dressed in the richest clothes that wealth could buy, was
beautiful. As years "went by and the queen became an old woman,
not only did she lose her good looks, but there seems no doubt that
she made the mistake of trying by her dress and by her manner to
look young and beautiful, long after the time of youth and beauty
had gone.
The Queen's Ministers— The Claim of the Queen
of Scots.
"The wisest Princes need not thinke it any diminution of their
Gretnesse, or derogation to their Sufficiency to rely upon counsel!. '-
Bacon's Essays.
We now come to an account of what took place in the first years
of Elizabeth's reign. Mary had been the queen of the Old Religion,
Elizabeth was to be the queen of the New Religion ; and she was wise
M*
362
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
enough to see that she could only be safe if she openly declared herself
on the side of the Reformers, who were now the stronger party in the
kingdom, and who were ready to serve her with devotion.
One of the first things that Elizabeth did was to choose her
ministers, and she showed her wisdom by her choice. Her chief
minister was William Cecil. Cecil had been a friend of. the Duke of
Northumberland in the time of Edward VI. Under Mary he had
declared himself
to be a friend of
the old religion.
Now that Elizabeth
was on the throne
he came forward
as a Protestant ;
but though he
had made many
changes before he
became Elizabeth's
minister, he made
none after that
time.
For forty years
Cecil served the
queen faithfully.
He helped her with
his wise counsel in
all her difficulties.
Elizabeth, on her
side, knew that she
could trust Cecil
more than any
other adviser, and
she was true to him to the end of his life. She made him Lord
Burleigh, and she gave him great wealth and power, which he
always used wisely. Few sovereigns have had a better minister than
Elizabeth, and few ministers have ever been better trusted or better
rewarded than William Cecil, Lord Burleigh.
From the time of Queen Elizabeth, the family of Cecil has often
taken a part in directing the affairs of this country. In our own
lifetime Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury, has, like William Cecil,
Lord Burleigh, been the trusted minister of the Sovereign of England.
Among the other ministers whom the queen chose were Walsingliam,
LORD BURLEIGH.
(From a pointing by Mark Gerard.}
THE CLAIM OF THE QUEEN OF SCOTS. 363
Nicholas Bacon, and Lord Robert Dudley, the brother of Gnildford
Dudley, the unfortunate husband of Lady Jane Grey.
As soon as Elizabeth had been crowned queen, it became clear
that there were many difficulties before her. Most of the countries
of Europe accepted her as the true Queen of England, but there were
two exceptions. Paul IV., who was then Pope, told the English
ambassador that Elizabeth had no right to be queen, but that if she
would send and beg for his permission to succeed to the throne he
would give it. Elizabeth did not trouble Paul IV. She neither
asked for nor wanted his permission. She ordered her ambassador
to leave Rome; and she reigned for forty-five years without the Pope's
leave, but with the full agreement of the people of England.
The other exception to the friendliness of the sovereigns of Europe
was the conduct of Henry II., King of France. Henry declared that
Elizabeth had no right to come to the throne. The true heir, he
said, was Mary Stuart,((5<J) great-granddaughter of Henry VII., who had
married the Dauphin Francis, the heir to the throne of France.
As this claim which was made by the King of France on behalf
of Mary Stuart was the beginning of a bitter quarrel between Eliza-
beth and Mary, and led to much trouble and sorrow, we must try
to understand how it arose.
We shall understand this most easily if we look at the plan which
shows the family of Henry VII. (see pp. 432 and 803). It will be seen
that Elizabeth properly came before Mary Stuart, because she was
the daughter of Henry VII. 's son, while Mary, was descended
from Margaret, Henry VII. 's daughter. It is true that Margaret was
older than Henry, but by the law and custom of England, the son of
the king had the right to succeed to the throne before the daughter.
But the King of France did not forget that both the Pope and
the Parliament of England had at one time declared that Elizabeth
had no right to come to the throne. The Pope had declared that
she could not come to the throne because Henry had no right to
divorce Catharine, and to marry Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth's mother.
The English Parliament in the reign of Henry VIII. had declared that
Elizabeth could not succeed, because at that time Henry was angry
with Anne Boleyn, and had ordered her to be executed. If^ it were "|
true that Elizabeth had no right to come to the throne, then tin; '-
King of France was quite right when he said that Mary Stuart was the J
next lieir .
But there was a great deal to be said on the other side. In the
first place, Henry VIII. had, with the consent of Parliament, made a
will before he died, in which he specially declared that Elizabeth
364 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
should come to the throne. In the second place, whatever the King of
France thought, the people of England had made up the:r minds that
they did not want, and would not have, either a foreign queen or a
queen of the old religion, but that they did want, and would have, an
English and a Protestant queen.
And there was a third reason, which no doubt had a great deal
of weight with people in England who at first felt inclined to agree
with the King of France, namely, that Parliament passed an Act
declaring that Elizabeth was the true heir to the throne both by birth
and by law, and that any man or woman who declared the contrary
should be put to death, and thus it came about that, despite the
Pope and despite the King of France, Elizabeth found herself seated
firmly upon the throne.
The Act of Uniformity, and the Court of High
Commission -The " Puritans."
"Men must beware, that in the Procuring of Religious Unity, they doe
not Dissolue and Deface the Lawes of Charity and of humane Society." —
Bacon's Essays.
Two things began at once to occupy the new queen. One was the
question of religion, the other was the question of marriage. Just
as Mary had turned out the Protestant bishops, so Elizabeth now
turned out all the Roman Catholic bishops who would not admit that
Elizabeth was the true head of the Church. All the bishops but one
were turned out, and Protestants put in their places ; but most of
the parish clergymen kept their places, and readily agreed to accept
the Protestant services. Indeed, most of them were Protestants
at heart.
Parliament then passed two Acts (1559), called respectively the Act
of Uniformity and the Act of Supremacy. The former enacted not only
that everybody in the country should publicly attend the Protestant
services, but declared that all the Protestant services throughout
the country were to be of one uniform pattern. The latter declared all
persons to be guilty of high treason who did not admit the queen's
title. Many persons were punished under these laws, and many
were put to death for disobeying them. The charge which was made
against those who offended against the Act of Supremacy was that
they had been guilty of high treason. In order to carry out the Act
THE ACTS OF UNIFORMITY AND SUPREMACY. 365
of Uniformity, a special Court was set up, called the Court of High
Commission.
Most of those who were tried and punished by the Court of
High Commission were Roman Catholics and friends of the Pope,
but some were Protestants. Many of the Protestants who had fled
from the country in the time of Queen Mary had lived during their
exile in Germany or Switzerland. In the latter country they had
become the followers of a French Protestant preacher named
Calvin, and were known as Calvinists.
In England they soon got another name. They believed that
the Reformation had not gone nearly far enough, and that the Church
which Elizabeth had set up under the Act of Uniformity was too
much like the Roman Catholic Church whose place it had taken.
They said that in a true Protestant Church there ought to be no
bishops, and that each congregation ought to choose its own minister,
and they declared that many other things were needed to purify
the Protestant Church and to make it what it ought to be.
Because they desired, as they said, to purify the Church, these men
came to be called Puritans; and though they did not become very
powerful in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, we shall learn further on
in our history that they played a great part in later times.
Elizabeth would not allow anyone, whether Roman Catholic or
Protestant, to break the laws which she had made. She did not, like
Queen Mary, say that people might not think' what they liked, nor did
she put people to death on account of what they thought or believed,
but she declared that everyone who publicly broke the Act of Uni-
formity or the Act of Supremacy should be punished. And thus it was
that both Roman Catholics and Puritans alike came to be condemned
by the Court of High Commission.
It is sad to think that a Protestant queen and a Protestant parlia-
ment should have forgotten how much they owed to those who had
fought and died for the right to worship God in the way they thought
right. It is sad to think that under Elizabeth men were put to death
for their religion, but, unfortunately, there is no doubt that such was
the case.
There is one thing, however, which we must remember. The
Roman Catholics who refused to obey the Acts were friends of the
Pope, and there is no doubt that the Pope would have gladly given
his help to any foreign nation which would have sent an army into
England, to take the crown away from Queen Elizabeth, and to force
the country back to the old religion.
It is not true to say that all the Roman Catholics who were put to
366 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
death by the Court of High Commission were guilty of high treason.
But it cannot be doubted that many of them hoped to see a change
made in England by the help of foreign armies. No one need ever
feel sorry for an Englishman who is put to death because he has been
plotting to bring foreign soldiers into England against the will of
the people. A man who does this is a traitor, and the sooner he is
punished the better.
The Queen and Her Suitors.
"Cupid all arm'd ; a certain aim he tooh
At a fair vestal throned by the west,
And loosed his loue-shaft smartly from his bow,
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts :
But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
Quenched in the chaste beams of the wafry moon
And the imperial votaress passed on,
In maiden meditation, fancy-free. " 1
Shakespeare : " Midsummer Night's Dream,
There was another important question besides that of religion which
troubled Elizabeth and her ministers at the very beginning of her
reign. This was the question of the queen's marriage. It was very
important to the country that the queen should marry, so that there
might be a Protestant heir to the throne ; but to those who remembered
the harm which had been done by Queen Mary's marriage with Philip
of Spain, it seemed also of the greatest importance that the queen
should marry the right person.
There was not likely to be any difficulty in finding a suitor for the
hand of a young queen, and, indeed, there was no lack of persons
ready to offer themselves ; and it was soon seen that the difficulty
would now be to choose among so many.
Among those who sought the hand of the queen were her brother-
in-law, Philip the Second of Spain ; Charles of Austria, son of the Emperor
Ferdinand ; Eric, King of Sweden ; the Duke of Holstein, son of the King
of Denmark ; and the Duke of Anjou, brother of Henry III., King of
France. Never did a lady have such distinguished wooers. Parlia-
ment sent an address to the queen begging her to take a husband.
The queen thanked the members, but said she would rather remain
1 Spoken by Oberon, of Titania, Queen of the Fairies, but meant by Shakespeare to be a
compliment to Queen Elizabeth.
368 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
single. At the same time she would not say " No " to her suitors, and
seemed to incline now to one and now to another.
The Duke of Anjou was, perhaps, the one for whom she had the
greatest liking, but in the end Elizabeth stuck to the resolution which
she had expressed in her answer to Parliament. She would have no
husband, and remained single to the end of her days — The Virgin Queen.
Whether it were that she feared the loss of her power if she had a
husband, or whether it were that she never found a husband to her
liking, is not certain, but, whatever her reason, Elizabeth chose to
remain unmarried.
The first part of the new reign was not fortunate for England.
The queen was forced to agree to give up the English claims to Calais,
a town which every Englishman still hoped might be won back again ;
and the French town of Havre, which had been captured by the
English troops, was retaken by the French after a fierce siege.
France at this time was governed by the Roman Catholic party,
and for this reason was hostile to Protestant England. There were,
however, in France, a great number of Protestants who, under
the name of Huguenots (derived from the German word Eidgenossen,
meaning " Confederates") were trying hard to upset the French
Government and to put a Protestant king upon the throne. Although
Elizabeth did not like to make war openly upon France, she con-
stantly sent help to the Huguenots, and allowed English soldiers to
go over and fight on their side. This was another cause for disagree-
ment between England and France at the beginning of Elizabeth's
reign ; and there was a third cause, about which we shall read in the
next chapter, and which at one time seemed as if it would prove
more serious than either of the others.
369
CHAPTER XLIV.
THE SORROWFUL HISTORY OF MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS.
Mary in Scotland.
'Adieu, beloved France, adieu,
Thou ever wilt be dear to me,
Land which my happy childhood knew,
I feel I die in quitting thee."
Marx Beranger : " Mary Stuart's Farewell."
WE must not forget that Mary Stuart, who had married the Dauphin
of France, was also by right Queen of Scotland. In 1559 Henry II.,
King of France, died, and Francis II., Mary's husband, became King
of France. It appeared as though there were here the beginning of
a great danger for England. That the Queen of France should be
also Queen of Scotland, and that both she and her husband should
be Roman Catholics and eager to support the old religion, seemed a
very serious matter. Luckily, however, for England, the young King
Francis died before he had reigned eighteen months (1560), and
was succeeded by his brother Charles IX.
Mary was now no longer Queen of France. Her mother-in-law,
Catherine de Medicis, hated her, and Mary was glad of any reason
which would take her away from the French Court, where she was
now no longer mistress, and where, since the new king had come to
the throne, she had few friends and many enemies. When, therefore,
the message reached Mary from the Parliament of Scotland inviting
her to come back to her own country and live among her subjects,
she accepted, if not with joy, at any rate willingly.
On the isth day of August, 1561, she set sail from Calais. Her
heart sank as ehe saw the shores of France, the land in which she had
been so happy, pass slowly out of sight, and tears came to her eyes as
she bade adieu to that pleasant country. English ships of war were
looking out for her, for Mary claimed to be Queen of England, and
thereby declared herself an enemy of Elizabeth. But a sea-fog
favoured the Queen of Scots, and she reached Leith, the seaport
of Edinburgh, in safety.
And now, before we go any further with the story of Mary, Queen
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
of Scots, we must pause for a moment to learn what was the condition
of Scotland at this time. Unless we do so, we shall not be able to
understand how it was that the story of the " Queen of Scots" plays
so important a part in the history of England.
The division which had been caused in England by the Protestant
Reformation had been very great, but in Scotland the division was
even greater, for the
two parties soon came
to blows, and a fierce
civil war broke out.
We have seen how
among the Protestant
exiles, who came back
at the beginning of
Elizabeth's reign,
there were followers
of Calvin, men who
afterwards were called
Puritans in England,
but the fiercest and
most earnest follower
of Calvin came to
Scotland. This was
John Knox, who soon
became the head of
the party of Re-
formers in Scotland.
Everywhere he
preached against the
Roman Catholic
Church, and went so
far as to make violent
attacks upon the
queen to her face. He preached so fiercely against her one day that
Mary, frightened by his language and by his harsh appearance, burst
into tears.
But though the party of Knox and the Reformers was very strong,
Mary, too, had many friends. She was young and she was beautiful.
There seems no doubt, indeed, that she was one of the most beautiful
women of her time. She could always reckon upon the goodwill of
France, now she had left it, and the Roman Catholic party in Scotland
was still powerful.
MARY STUART, QUEEN OF SCOTS.
MARY IN SCOTLAND.
Nor was this all. There were many thousands in England who
belonged to the old religion, and who believed that Elizabeth had
no right to the crown. But if Elizabeth had no right to the crown,
then Mary, Queen of Scots was the true Queen of England. Thus
it will be seen that Mary had good friends, and a great chance of
success when she first came to Scotland. If she had only shown
more wisdom her fate might have been a very fortunate one, but she
chose to do things
which made her
own friends desert
her, and which
made her enemies
feel that she was a
danger to them as
long as she lived.
Mary's first hus-
band had been
Francis II, King of
France, and she
was now a widow ;
but it was not long
before she married
again. She chose as
her husband Henry
Darnley ,(70) a young
nobleman of hand-
some appearance
but of a bad and
brutal character.
She soon learned to JOHN KNOX.
hate her new hus-
band. Among the courtiers of the queen was an Italian named
David Rizzio, of whom the queen was very fond. He was a good
musician and a clever talker, and the queen, fresh from the gay
Court of France, liked his company much better than that of the
savage Scottish nobles who were the companions of Henry Darnley.
In a fit of jealousy, Darnley, with three of the lords — Morton,
Ruthven, and Lindsay — broke into the room where the queen was
sitting with the Countess of Argyle and Rizzio. Mary tried to protect
her friend, but the lords dragged Rizzio from her and murdered
him with their daggers in the next room. In the royal palace of
Holyrood, in Edinburgh, the room is still shown where Mary was
372 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
sitting when her husband and his cruel friends broke in, and the
place is pointed out where Rizzio fell pierced with no less than
fifty-five wounds. From that moment the queen determined to be
rid of Darnley, and her determination was all the greater because she
had already made up her mind to marry a third husband.
The husband whom the queen had made up her mind- to marry was
the Earl of Bothwell. It was not long before the queen was free to
do what she wished. Darnley fell ill of small-pox. By the queen's
order he was brought to her house near Edinburgh, called the
Kirk-o'-fields. Mary herself went to nurse him there, but returned
to Edinburgh in the evening. On the night of the gth February, 1567,
she left her husband at ten o'clock to go to a ball at the palace,
At three o'clock in the morning a violent explosion took place.
Kirk-o'-fields was blown up by gunpowder, and the body of Darnley
was found among the ruins. No one doubted that Bothwell had been
the murderer, and many declared that the queen had known of
the plot.
The Flight of Mary, Queen of Scots.
"The Queen, the Beauty sets the world in arms."
Johnson : " Vanity of Human Wishes.1'
But although everyone, whether in Scotland or in other countries,
declared that Bothwell was her husband's murderer, Mary was de-
termined to have her own way, and married him two months after
the death of Darnley.
At first the Parliament of Scotland had declared that Bothwell
was innocent, but as soon as the queen actually married him they
no longer pretended to have any doubt of his guilt. A number of the
Protestant lords took up arms. They declared Bothwell to be the
murderer of the king, they sent to Queen Elizabeth for help, and
they marched against Mary and her husband. Bothwell fled to the
Orkney Islands. Hunted from his refuge, he put to sea, and was
driven by a storm on to the coast of Norway. There he was taken,
imprisoned as a pirate, and died in prison eleven years later.
Queen Mary herself was taken prisoner by the lords and shut up in
Lochleven Castle, in the middle of Loch Leven. It was not long,
however, before the queen succeeded in making her escape. No
sooner was she free than she called upon her friends to help her.
1
< •?
374 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
She at once raised an army, and marched against her half-brother,
Murray, the leader of the Protestant lords. The two armies met
at Langside, near Glasgow, and the battle which took place ended
in the entire defeat of the queen's troops.
Mary herself rode off at full speed, and never stopped till she
reached Dundrennan, on the Solway Firth. There she paused, un-
certain what course to take. Behind her were Murray and the Scottish
lords, her bitter enemies ; in front, across the waters of the Solway,
were England and Queen Elizabeth, whose crown she had claimed
and whose enmity she had good reason to fear. Her friends advised
her not to set foot in England, but rather to return to her friends
in France.
Mary, however, made up her mind to take refuge in England
and to trust to the goodwill of Elizabeth. She crossed the water
in a small boat and landed at Workington, in Cumberland. Thence
she went to Carlisle. News was at once brought to Elizabeth that
her rival was now in her power. From that day forward Mary
was really a prisoner during the whole of the nineteen years which
passed between the day of her defeat at Langside and the day of
her death (1587).
The Queen of Scots in England.
" The glory and the glow
Of the world's loveliness hath passed away ;
And Fate hath little to inflict to-day,
And nothing to bestow."
W.M.Praed: "Retrospect."
The story of these years is a sorrowful one. It is not easy, even at
the present day, to give a clear account of what really took place, or
to say how far Mary, Queen of Scots deserved the fate that overtook
her. Even now, three hundred years after the time when these things
took place, there are many people who declare that Mary was a good
and an honest woman, most unjustly and cruelly treated by Elizabeth.
On the other hand, there are many who declare that Mary was a bad
woman, who, having murdered one husband in order to marry another,
took part in plots against the life of Queen Elizabeth, and was ready
to get the help of France, Spain, or Scotland to enable her to seize
the crown of England against the wishes of the English people.
THE QUEEN OF SCOTS IN ENGLAND. 375
One thing, however, is certain — namely, that while Mary, Queen
of Scots remained alive and in England she was always a danger to
Elizabeth and to the Protestant cause. In France, in Spain, and in
Scotland her best friends were the worst enemies of England. On
Queen Elizabeth's death, Mary would, beyond doubt, have become
Queen of England, and the enemies of England would have expected
her to help them, and to put down the Protestants.
While Mary was in England, plot after plot was made against
Elizabeth by Mary's friends, and by men who looked to her as their
rightful queen. Whether Mary knew of all or of any of these plots is
uncertain. It is most probable that she knew of most of them, but
it is not proved that she helped them on. It was certainly believed
that she had taken part in the murder of Darnley, and a box or casket
was found, containing letters which proved, if they were genuine, that
Mary certainly did know of the murder.
But there were many who said then, and many who still believe,
that these " casket letters," as they were called, were forgeries — that is
to say, that they were written by Mary's enemies for the purpose of
making people believe that she was guilty.
Whatever may have been the truth about Mary's guilt, Elizabeth
made up her mind from the time Mary first came into Carlisle that
she should be kept a prisoner. Year after year the beautiful Queen
of Scots was moved from one prison to another. Each time a new
plot was discovered, or each time Elizabeth's friends declared that
they had found out a new plot, Mary's imprisonment was made stricter
and harsher.
She begged to see Elizabeth, but Elizabeth never consented to see
her. At length Mary was removed to her last prison, the Castle of
Fotheringay, near Peterborough. Whether at that time Elizabeth had
made up her mind that Mary should be put to death is not certain,
but the discovery of a new plot sealed her fate. The plot, which was
known as Babington' s conspiracy, was the work of a young man named
Babington. His plan was to set Mary Stuart free, to stab Queen
Elizabeth with a dagger, to invite the Spanish troops in the Nether-
lands to come over and attack England, and to set up the Roman
Catholic religion again. Wrhether Mary knew of this plot is not quite
certain. It does not seem likely that she approved of it, but she had
received a letter from Babington; and this letter was found.
Elizabeth and her ministers now decided that the time had come
when an end must be put, once for all, to these dangers. Babington
and his friends were taken, tried, and executed. The next thing to be
done was to try Mary herself. The trial took place at Fotheringay.
376 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
It was soon plain to all that the judges whom Elizabeth had appointed
had already made up their minds as to what their sentence was to be.
Mary was to die.
In these last hours of her life the Queen of Scots behaved with
wonderful courage. She asked to be brought face to face with her
accusers. She declared that she was Queen of Scots, and that an
English court had no right to try her. She was innocent, she said, and
she was about to be unjustly condemned without being heard in her
own defence.
But neither her courage nor her arguments moved the minds of
her judges. On the 25th of October, 1586, the judges gave their
sentence. They declared that " Mary Stuart, commonly called Queen of
Scots," was guilty of "pretending a title to the Crown of this Realm of
England, tending to the hurt, death, and destruction of the Royal Person
of our Lady the Queen." They also declared that she had taken part in
Babington's plot. Their sentence was that she should be put to death.
Parliament at once begged Elizabeth to order the sentence to be
carried out. There can be no doubt that most Englishmen, and
nearly all Protestant Englishmen, were tired of these plots against their
queen ; and that when the Parliament begged Elizabeth to put Mary
to death they really spoke the wishes of the people. For some time
Elizabeth refused to sign the warrant, or order, for the execution.
Whether she really wished to save Mary's life or not is uncertain,
but she wished to be able to say that she had consented to sign the
death-warrant against her own will, and only because her Parliament
and her ministers told her that it was her duty. At last, however, she
gave an order to affix the Great Seal to the warrant.
And now we come to the last scene in the life of the unhappy
Mary, Queen of Scots. The courage which had kept her up through
the trial did not forsake her on the scaffold. She listened quietly to
the reading of the order for her death. She declared that after nearly
twenty years of imprisonment death was welcome, and that she was
glad to die for her religion. As for the plots against Queen Elizabeth,
she vowed that she had never taken any part in them by thought,
deed, or word.
On the next day (February 8th, 1587), early in the morning, she
was led into the great hall of Fotheringay Castle. It was hung with
black, and in the middle were the executioner and the block. The
ladies who were with her wept bitterly, but Mary herself remained
firm till the fatal moment when the axe of the executioner fell. Thus
died the unfortunate Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, in the forty-fifth
year of her age,
377
CHAPTER XLV.
PROTESTANTS AND ROMAN CATHOLICS ABROAD
AND AT HOME.
The Huguenots.
" Remember Saint Bartholomew I "— Macaulay : " Ivry."
BUT if Elizabeth had troubles at home, she had also troubles abroad.
The same quarrel between Protestants and Roman Catholics which
was going on in England and Scotland was going on at the same
time in almost all the countries of Europe. In France the Protest-
ants, who w"ere called Huguenots, had grown in numbers, and had
gained strength ; but the Roman Catholic party was still stronger.
In Spain the cruel persecution" which had been undertaken had
really succeeded, for the few Protestants in Spain had been put to
death, or driven out of the country, or compelled to change their
religion.
But, though the Spaniards had succeeded in putting down Pro-
testantism in their own country, they found they had a harder task
before them when they came to try to do the same thing in the
Netherlands, which were at that time under the government of the
King of Spain. The sturdy Dutchmen fought fiercely for their
religion, and they had on their side the goodwill of all the Pro-
testants of England.
It was not easy for Elizabeth to know what was the wisest course
to take. She was a Protestant queen, and both she and her people
wished that the Protestant cause should triumph in Europe. But
Spain and France were powerful countries, and it was a dangerous
thing for a queen who had enemies enough at home, to declare war
openly upon -such powerful sovereigns as the kings of Spain and
France.
But what Elizabeth did not dare to do many of her subjects
undertook. Hundreds of Englishmen crossed over to France and
to the Netherlands to fight on the side of their Protestant friends.
There can be no doubt that Elizabeth wished for their success, and
378
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
often gave them help in their expeditions ; but if they failed in
what they undertook, she was careful to declare that they had acted
against her will and contrary to her wish.
At the beginning of Elizabeth's reign France was an enemy to
England, and Spain was for a short time friendly with England, but
before many years had gone by this state of things had changed.
Two things had happened in France which helped to bring about
the change.
On the 24th of August, 1572,
St. Bartholomew's Day, a terrible
massacre had taken place.
The followers of the Duke
of Guise, who was at the head
of the Roman Catholic party
in France, had murdered no
less than 40,000 of the chief
men among the Protestant
party in Paris. The houses of
the Huguenots had been
marked beforehand, and on the
evening of St. Bartholomew's
Day the cruel work of drag-
ging condemned men from their
houses and of putting them to
death was begun. Admiral
Coligny, the chief of the
Huguenots in Paris, was among
those who were murdered.
The king, Charles IX., himself
had taken part in the massacre.
It was said that he amused
himself by shooting down the
Protestants from the window of his palace. The Pope, Gregory XIII.,
approved of the action of the Roman Catholics. It is easy to
understand that this cruel massacre made the Protestants of England
more determined than ever to stand by their queen and to protect
themselves against a danger such as that which had overtaken their
friends in France.
In France itself it soon became clear that the massacre had
done more harm than good to the Roman Catholic cause. Henry
of Navarre, the leader of the Huguenots, had escaped with his life,
but on the death, in 1589, of Henry III., who had succeeded
HENRY IV. OF FRANCE AND NAVARRE.
{From a painting by Rubens.)
ENGLAND AND SPAIN. 379
Charles IX. as King of France, he took up arms and put himself
at the head of his party. He won a great victory at the Battle of Ivry
(1590), and was able to advance as far as Paris itself. He was told
that the people of Paris would welcome him, and would receive him
as their king. But on one condition only. He must declare himself
a Roman Catholic. "Paris is worth a mass,"1 said the king; and
he consented to make the change which was required of him. In
March, 1593, he entered Paris to be crowned Henry IV., King of France.
But though Henry IV., King of France, had changed his religion
to gain a kingdom, he remained till the end of his life a good friend to
the Huguenots, to whose help he owed his crown. He issued an edict t
or decree, which was called the Edict of Nantes, from Nantes, a town
on the west coast of France, at which the decree was signed (1598).
The " Edict of Nantes "gave to the French Protestants the right to
follow their own religion, and to live in France as the equals of the
Roman Catholics. Nor was this all ; as long as he lived, Henry IV.
was a good friend to Elizabeth and to Protestant England. It is
easy, therefore, to understand how great a change took place in the
feeling between England and France when Henry IV. became king.
England and Spain.
" The life-and-death wrestle between the Reformation and the Old Religion
had settled into a permanent struggle between England and Spain. France
was disabled, All the help which Elizabeth could spare barely enabled the
Netherlands to defend themselves. Protestantism, if it conquered, must
conquer on another field, and by the circumstances of the time the cham-
pionship of the Reformed Faith fell to the English sailors. "—Froude.
But though England had now many friends in France, it was soon
clear that she had made an enemy of Spain. It will be remembered
that Philip II. of Spain, after the death of Queen Mary, had made
an offer for the hand of his sister-in-law, Queen Elizabeth. Elizabeth
had refused the offer. She had made up her mind not to marry at
all, but if she did marry she knew better than to choose for her
husband a man so hated by her subjects as Philip II. It will easily
be understood that the refusal of Elizabeth to accept him as her
husband may have made Philip unfriendly towards England.
1 Afasst a form of service in the Roman Catholic Church.
380 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
But Philip soon had much stronger reasons for looking on England
as an enemy. The time about which we are now reading was a
time in which almost every year brought some new discovery. Each
year bold sailors from Portugal, Spain, France, and England, sailed
further and further, into seas till then unknown, and brought back
rich merchandise from countries which people from Europe had
never before visited.
The Portuguese and the Spaniards had got the start of the other
nations of Europe. Already the Portuguese had established colonies
in the East, while the Spaniards had conquered Mexico and other
parts of the coast of America, which were then known as the Spanish
Main, or mainland. From their new possessions the Spaniards
brought into Europe immense riches in the form of gold and silver
from the mines of Mexico and Peru. Most of the new lands which
they had conquered were in hot climates, where white men could
not work, and already the cruel trade known as the slave trade had
begun. Slaves, most of them from Africa, were taken across the
sea to work in the new colonies.
But it soon became pretty clear that the wealth of Mexico and
the Spanish Main was not to be left in the hands of Spaniards alone.
The Spaniards found themselves face to face with a nation of seamen,
who step by step, and year by year, forced from them the place which
they had so long held as the principal colonists of the New World.
Throughout the whole reign of Queen Elizabeth the great struggle
between Spaniards and Englishmen was going on. It was a fierce and
cruel struggle on both sides. Both Spaniards and Englishmen fought
for gold, arid men who fight for gold are often fierce enough and cruel
enough.
But the fight between Spaniards and Englishmen was also a fight
between Roman Catholics and Protestants, between the Old Religion and
the New. The Spaniard looked upon the Englishman not only as a
man who wished to rob Spain of the great prizes which she had won
in the New World, but as a heretic, a man who was hateful to God,
and who might justly burn at the stake for his sins. The Englishman,
in his turn, looked upon the Spaniard as a cruel, narrow-minded man,
the persecutor of Protestants, the friend of the cruel tortures of the
Inquisition, and the enemy of England.
With these fierce hatreds on both sides, the strife between the two
nations was certain to be fought out to the bitter end, and it is to
this strife that we must now turn our attention, for unless we do so,
we shall understand but little of the true history of the reign of
Queen Elizabeth.
ENGLAND AND SPAIN. 381
It was not to be supposed that Philip of Spain would long endure
the attacks which were made upon his subjects by the English
sailors. Indeed, he had plenty of reasons for being angry with Queen
Elizabeth and her people. Philip had once been King of England, and
after Mary's death he had sought the hand of Elizabeth in the hope
that he might regain the place which he had lost. But Elizabeth,
greatly to the joy of her subjects, had refused to become the wife of a
Roman Catholic and a Spaniard.
For several years past English Protestant soldiers had been flock-
ing over to the Netherlands to fight on behalf of their fellow Protestants
against the Spaniards. And now Frobisher, Drake, and many another
English captain, were engaged in burning Spanish ships, sacking
Spanish colonies, seizing the wealth of Spain, under the very guns of
the Spanish fortresses, and, in the words of Francis Drake, " doing
all they could to singe the King of Spain's beard."
And last, but not least, Philip, as a great champion of the Pope,
looked upon Elizabeth and her people as heretics, whom it was
his duty to bring back — if necessary, by the sword — to the true religion.
No wonder, then, that at last Philip of Spain should have made up his
mind to strike one great blow at England, a blow which he hoped
would once for all break the power of the Protestant party, and chase
these fierce islanders from the sea.
382 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
CHAPTER XLVI.
THE STORY OF THE GREAT ARMADA.
England in Peril.
"The nations not so blest as thee
Must in their turn to tyrants fall,
Whilst thou shalt flourish great and free,
The dread and enuy of them all.
"Still more majestic shalt thou rise,
More dreadful from each foreign stroke ;
As the loud blast that tears the shies
Serues but to root thy natiue oah.
" Thee haughty tyrants ne'er shall tame ;
Thy cities shall with commerce shine.
And thine shall be the subject main,
And every shore it circles thine!
"Rule, Britannia I Britannia rules the waves I
Britons never shall be slaves I "
Thomson: " Rule, Britannia.
IN the year 1587, Philip began to make preparations for the famous
expedition against England which has made Queen Elizabeth's reign
for ever famous in the history of our country. He collected sailors
and soldiers not only from Spain, but from all those parts of Europe
which were at that time under the government of Spain — from Sicily,
Genoa, and Venice, and from the Low Countries.
It was Philip's plan to collect a large army near Antwerp, which is
only two hundred miles from London, and to bring it across the
Channel under the protection of a great fleet which was to sail from
Spain. Thirty thousand foot-soldiers and eighteen hundred cavalry
were collected in the Netherlands. Another great army was raised
in Spain, and all the best and bravest soldiers of Spain came forward
ready and longing to fight in the cause which they believed to be so
How THE " ARMADA " CAME. 383
good a one, and to share in the victories which the Invincible Armada,
or " The Unconquerable Fleet," was to earn for Spain.
But Philip was not content with collecting ships, soldiers, and
sailors. He sent to the Pope to ask for his aid and his blessing.
The Pope sent his blessing, and, in order to help still further the
cause of Spain, he declared Elizabeth to be deposed from her throne.
It may seem at first sight as if it mattered very little what the Pope
said, and that no declaration made at Rome would alter things in
England. But it must not be forgotten that many, if not all, of the
Roman Catholics in England believed that the Pope had the -right to
depose Queen Elizabeth, and that when she had once been deposed
they were no longer bound to obey her or to look upon her as their
queen.
This was a real danger, and it is not to be wondered at that
Elizabeth and her ministers should at first have taken very severe
steps to prevent the Roman Catholics from giving any help to the
Spaniards, or acting as the Pope wished them to act. Many were
imprisoned upon very slight suspicion, and some were cruelly treated.
There was also a real danger at one time lest the Protestants, who
were now the larger part of the nation, should try to take vengeance
upon the Roman Catholics for the massacre of St. Bartholomew and
the cruelties which had been practised by the Spanish generals in
the Netherlands.
Luckily, however, the danger passed over, and soon it was seen
that, though there might be a few exceptions, when England was in
peril of invasion by a foreign enemy, all Englishmen were united and
ready to stand shoulder to shoulder for their country's cause.
Hundreds of Roman Catholics came forward and offered to serve
by sea or by land against the enemy, determined to show that they
were Englishmen first and servants of the Pope afterwards: a true
and proper spirit for every man of English birth.
How the "Armada" came, and what they did in
England.
"With God, for Queen and Fatherland."
And now we come to one of the most stirring and splendid chapters
in the history of England— the story of how the country, with its great
queen at its head, rose as one man to protect the shores of England
384 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
from the Spaniards. It seemed a fight against terrible odds. The
fleets of Spain were the largest in the world. The thousands of soldiers
who obeyed Philip had become hardened in the art of war, and were
the foremost warriors of their age. The wealth of the New World
filled the coffers of the Spanish king to overflowing.
England, on the other hand, seemed altogether unfitted to hold her
own against such a foe. Her people were still divided by a great
religious quarrel. Within the island, of which England formed but
a part, there was another nation which might at any time take the
opportunity of working off its old grudges against its old enemy. No
one could say from day to day how soon a Scottish army might not
cross the Border.
As to an English army, there was none. There were a certain
number of armed men bound to serve the queen, but they were not
accustomed to act together. Few of them had any experience of war,
and training such as that of the well-drilled Spanish regiments was
unknown. Of ships the country had a fair supply, but they were
mostly small merchant vessels armed with a few guns, but not reckoned
fit to fight against the tall ships and the heavily armed " galliasses "
of Spain.
But some advantages England did possess. Her coasts could only
be approached across a stormy sea, and, as has so often happened in
English history, the winds and the waves proved her greatest ally.
Moreover, Elizabeth, whatever faults she may have had, was a true
Englishwoman, and fit to be queen of a great country in a time of trial.
She faced the danger bravely. She called upon her people to stand
by her, and with one accord the people answered her appeal.
On every side volunteers came forward in thousands. Merchants
offered their ships for the war, and offered them with powder, shot, and
crews all ready on board. A hundred and thirty thousand men were
mustered throughout the kingdom. Fortifications were put up at the
mouth of the Thames and elsewhere, and every ship fit for service was
manned and stationed in the Channel.
There is a fine description of Queen Elizabeth taking her right
place as chief of her people in time of danger. She rode down to
Tilbury tc review the army, and these are her words as they have
come down to us : —
" My loving people ! We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our
safety to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery ;
but I assure you 1 do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let
tyrants fear ! I have always so behaved myself, that, under God, I have placed my
chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and goodwill of my subjects ; and,
QUEEN ELIZABETH.
(From tin Portrait by Zucc/tero, in the possesti:n rf the Marquis ofSalisburv.}
386 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
therefore, I am come amongst you at this time, not as for my recreation and sport, but
being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all ; to
lay down for my God, for my kingdom, and for my people, my honour and my blood
even in the dust. I know that I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I
have the heart of a king, and a king of England, too, aqd think foul scorn that Parma,1
or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm ; to
which, rather than any dishonour should grow by me, I will myself take up arms.
I myself will be your general, the judge and rewarder of every one of your virtues in
the field."
These were indeed words worthy of a Queen of England.
The preparations for the sailing of the great Armada dragged
along very slowly. Once the ships put to sea, but were driven back
by stormy weather. At last, on the igth of July, 1588, the fleet started
once more on its great task of conquering England.
The preparations, which had been made were immense. The
number of ships was one hundred and thirty-one. The number of
sailors was nearly 8,000. Seventeen thousand soldiers were packed-
into the different vessels. There were 180 priests on board, and 85
surgeons and doctors. The priests were to convert the English
from their Protestantism when England had been taken. The
doctors and surgeons were to take care of the wounded in Case the
Armada suffered any loss in battle. As matters turned out, the
doctors found more to do than the priests. On one of the ships, the
" Capitana," there was a chest full of beautifully made swords, which
were to be given to the English Roman Catholic lords when they
had joined the Spaniards against their queen and country.
The Duke of Medina Sidonia was at the head of the whole fleet.
Under him was Admiral Recalde, and many other officers famous for
their bravery and skill in war. The duke's orders were very strict.
He was to sail up the Channel till he got to Dunkirk. He was to.
stop for no man. If the English came out to fight him he was
to sail on and let them follow. When he got to Dunkirk, he was to
take on board the army which was waiting there to join him. He
was to enter the Thames, land the troops, and wait till England
had submitted.
All went well with the great Armada for the first few days. A
few ships which were scattered by a storm joined the fleet again.
On a Friday afternoon the leading ships came within sight of the
English land, and they could see the high cliffs of the Lizard to
the north.
Meanwhile, in England the whole people, from Berwick to The
1 The Duke of Parma, the Spanish general in the Netherlands.
" THE ENEMY IN SJGHT." 387
Land's End, were waiting in anxious expectation for the first news
of the enemy. Beacons were prepared along the coast, and on every
high point throughout the country. The orders were to light them as
soon as the Spanish ships were sighted.
"The Enemy in Sight."
"Night sank upon the dusky beach, and on the purple sea,
Such night in England ne'er had been, nor e'er again shall be.
From Eddystone to Berwick bounds, from Lynn to Mi/ford Bay,
That time of slumber was as bright and busy as the day."
Macaulay : "The Armada."
It was a Scottish privateer named Fleming who first brought the
news to Plymouth that the enemy was at hand. He had seen them
off the Lizard, and they were coming up Channel with a fair wind.
When the news came, the captains of the warships were playing
a game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe, a flat green space which looks
out on the broad and beautiful waters of Plymouth Sound.
Here is a description of some of the men who were playing in
this famous game of bowls, or who stood by to watch the players.
The account is by Charles Kingsley, who wrote a noble and famous
book called "Westward Ho," in which this whole story of the fight
against the Armada is told at much greater length than it can be
told here : —
" See those five talking earnestly. Those soft long eyes and pointed chin you recog-
nise already ; they are Walter Raleigh's. The fair young man in the flame-coloured
doublet, whose arm is round Raleigh's neck, is Lord Sheffield ; opposite them stands,
by the side of Sir Richard Grenville, a man as stately even as he, Lord Sheffield's
uncle, the Lord Charles Howard of Effingham, Lord High Admiral of England ;
next to him is his son-in-law, Sir Robert Southwell, captain of the Elizabeth Jonas ;
but who is that short, sturdy, plainly-dressed man, who stands with legs a little apart, and
hands behind his back, looking up, with keen grey eyes, into the face of each speaker ?
His cap is in his hands, so you can see the bullet head of crisp brown hair and the
wrinkled forehead, as well as the high cheek-bones, the short square face, the broad
temples, the thick lips, which are yet as firm as granite. A coarse plebeian stamp of
man : yet the whole figure and attitude are those of boundless determination, self-
possession, and energy ; and when at last he speaks a few blunt words, all eyes are
turned respectfully upon him — for his name is Francis Drake.
" A burly, grizzled elder, in greasy sea-stained garments, contrasting oddly with the
huge gold chain about his neck, waddles up, as if he had been born, and had lived ever
since, in a gale of wind at sea. The upper half of his sharp dogged visage seems of
388
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
brick-red leather, the lower of badger's fur ; and as he claps Drake on the back, and
with a broad Devon twang, shouts, ' Be you a coming to drink your wine, Francis
Drake, or be you not ? — saving your presence, my Lord ; ' the Lord High Admiral only
laughs, and bids Drake go and drink his wine ; for John Hawkins, Admiral of the
port, is the Patriarch of Plymouth seamen, if Drake be their hero, and says and does
pretty much what he likes.
" In the crowd is many another man whom one would gladly have spoken with face
to face on earth. Martin Frobisher and John Davis are sitting on that bench,
smoking tobacco from long silver pipes."
ON THE WATCH : LIGHTING THE BEACON.
It was to this company that Captain Fleming brought his great
piece of news. Lord Howard would have gone off at once to his
ship, but Hawkins was in no such hurry. He would rather, he said,
finish his game before he left. Drake agreed with Hawkins. " There
was time to finish the game first, and beat the Spaniards afterwards.".
So the famous game was finished ; and then the old sea captains
turned to their work with a will. We shall see how well they did it.
As Drake said, " there, was time enough," but there was not too
much. The English ships with difficulty warped out to sea against
a head wind. They got out just in time to see the great Spanish
fleet sweeping up the Channel in an immense crescent, the horns of
which were fully seven miles apart. For a short time the Spaniards
390 HrsroRY OF ENGLAND.
paused. Many of the wisest of them were in favour of sailing into
Plymouth Sound and engaging the English fleet in the narrow waters,
where the heavy slow-sailing ships of Spain would fight to the greatest
advantage.
"How the Armada Failed."
Then courage, noble Englishmen,
And never be dismayed ;
If that we be but one to ten,
We will not be afraid."
"Ballad of Brave Lard Willoughby.
But the Duke of Medina Sidonia dared not disobey his orders, and
he sailed on again eastwards. Howard and Drake allowed the enemy
to pass, and then followed them up the Channel. Soon the fighting
began. The Capitana ran into another Spanish ship and became
disabled. Her friends left her in the lurch, and she was soon
captured by the English. On board her was found the chest of
swords which were to have gone to the English Roman Catholic
lords as soon as they had turned traitors to their country.
The Spaniards soon had reason to know that when England is in
danger, Englishmen can put aside their differences ; for some of these
very Roman Catholic lords were at that moment in full pursuit of
the Armada, and the heavy guns of their ships were firing their shot
into the high sides of the Spanish vessels.
It soon became clear that, big as the Spanish ships were, they
were no match either in sailing or in gunnery for the English. The
English ships were longer and lower than those of the Spaniards.
They sailed far better than the tall galleons. The Spaniards longed to
get close with their enemy to grapple with him, and then make use
of the crowds of soldiers whom they carried. But the English ships
were too quick for them.
Moreover, it soon became clear that in another matter the English
had an advantage. We have seen that as far back as the time of
Henry VIII. very large cannon had been made in England, and
those that were now carried on the English ships were heavier and
more powerful than any which had ever been used at sea. " Never
had there been so fierce a cannonade before in the history of the
world," said one of the Spanish officers.
*' How THE ARMADA FAILED" 391
It was feared at one time that the Spaniards might stop off the
Isle of Wight and attack Portsmouth and Southampton. But once
more the Duke of Medina Sidonia obeyed his orders, and kept on
his way towards Dunkirk. Many of the English ships, after fierce
fighting for many hours, ran out of powder, and had to go back to
port for more. But those who returned for this purpose came back
to the fleet again, and as the Spaniards got nearer to Dunkirk the
English fleet increased.
At Dunkirk the Spaniards found their friends waiting for them
on shore, and the English fleet under Lord Howard, Drake, and Hawkins
was joined by another fleet under Lord Henry Seymour, which had
been left to watch Dunkirk and protect the Thames. It was here
that the great battle took place. The Spaniards would not come
out to sea, so the English captains thought of a plan by which they
could make them come out. Fire-ships were got ready filled with
tar, powder, pitch, and everything that would burn fiercely. Two
brave men, Captain Young and Captain Prowse, undertook to take
the fire-ships close to the Spanish fleet. In the darkness they came
within a short di-stance of where the Spaniards lay at anchor. The
fire-ships were lighted and left to sail by themselves before the strong
wind in among the Spanish lines.
The Spanish ships cut their anchor cables in their haste to
escape from the terrible danger which threatened them, and got out
to sea as best they cguld. But some had no spare anchors, and
when they got outside the harbour, could not anchor again, and
were carried far away from the rest of the fleet. Some of them
drifted ashore and were wrecked; then, to make matters worse, the
English fleet came sailing down with a fair wind.
The battle raged with fury. The shot from the heavy English
cannon went through and through the Spanish ships, which were
crowded with soldiers, the decks ran with blood, yet neither side
would give way. But as the day drew on the Spaniards could bear
it no longer. Some of their best ships were disabled or taken.
Hundreds of their men had been killed. The water-casks which
carried their fresh water had been shot through and through. There
was nothing for it but to get away by the easiest road. At one time
it seemed as if the wind would drive the fleet on shore, and for a
while the Spaniards thought there would be nothing left for them
but to surrender. But the wind changed, and blew, as it so often
does in the Channel, from the south-west.
392 Hisi^ORY OF ENGLAND.
How the "Armada" went Home Again.
"Afflavit Deus et dissipantur."
"God blew with His breath, anrl they were scattered"
Motto on the medal struck to commemorate the defeat of the Spanish Armada.
What was left of the Armada toiled slowly on its way into the
North Sea. The English did not follow. As has often happened in
English history, those whose business it was to keep our soldiers and
sailors properly supplied had not done their duty. Lord Howard,
Drake, and all the other English sailors had fought their best, and
were willing to go on fighting, but they could not fight without powder.
There was no powder left in most of the ships, and there was no
more to be got. But what the English cannon were not able to do
was done by the stormy seas of the German Ocean and the Atlantic.
The Armada sailed north, past the mouth of the Thames, past
Hull, and past Leith, until it reached Cape Wrath. There the vessels
turned to the westward between the Orkney Islands and the main-
land of Scotland. They dared not return through the narrow waters
of the St. George's Channel, but kept on into the Atlantic till they
had passed the north-west corner of Ireland.
Then, at last, they turned southwards towards their Spanish homes,
but few ever reached the ports from which they sailed. The great
rollers of the Atlantic broke up the tall unwieldy ships, and the
south-westerly gales drove them on to the rocky and inhospitable
shores of Donegal, Sligo, Galway, and Kerry. Those who escaped the
fury of the waves, fell into the hands of the wild Irish tribes, or of
the English soldiers and settlers. The former in many cases put them
to death for the plunder which might be taken from them. The
latter threw them into prison or killed them, as enemies of England,
and men likely to be dangerous in case they took part with those
of the Irish who were in rebellion against Elizabeth.
Of the whole great expedition which had left Spain to conquer
England less than 10,000 men returned alive, and of these many
hundreds, worn out by hardship and starvation, died shortly after they
had returned to their homes.
When the news of the great disaster was brought to Philip, he bore
himself like a brave man. He thanked Heaven that the misfortune
was no worse. " We are bound," he wrote, " to give-praise to God for
THE "ARMADA" WENT HOME AGAIN.
393
all things which He is pleased to do. I, on the present occasion, have
given thanks to Him for the mercy which Pie has shown. In the foul weather
and violent storms to which the Armada has been exposed, it might have
experienced a worse fate."
In England the news was received by all men with true joy and
thankfulness. At last the power of Spain upon the sea had been
broken, and England and the Protestant religion were safe from
attack. A great Thanksgiving Service, at which the queen attended,
"ON THE ROCKS OF GALWAY."
was held in St. Paul's Cathedral. A medal was struck to mark
the deliverance of the country from its enemies, and round its
edge was written in Latin, " God blew with His breath, and they were
scattered." l
It was, indeed, true, that although the valour, seamanship, and
skill of our English seamen had broken the first attack of the Armada
and saved the country from invasion, it was the winds and the
waves, the tempests of the Atlantic, and the rock-bound coasts of
Scotland and Ireland which had destroyed the proudest ships of
the great Armada, and had wrecked for ever the hopes of the King
of Spain.
1 Afllavit Deus et dissipantur.
N*
394 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
CHAPTER XLVII.
THE LAST YEARS OF THE GREAT QUEEN.
The Queen and Her Favourite.
"Essex, the ornament of the Court and of the Camp, the model of
chivalry, the munificent patron of genius, whom great virtues, great courage,
great talents, the favour of his sovereign, the love of his countrymen, all
that seemed to ensure a happy and glorious life, led to an early and an
ignominious death."
Macaulay : " Burleigh and his Times " (1832).
IT was in the year 1588 that the Spanish Armada was defeated, and
Elizabeth had already reigned for thirty years. She was still un-
married. She had always feared that if she took a husband she might
have to submit to his will and to give up her own. This, however, did
not prevent her choosing from among her courtiers favourites, by
whom for a time she allowed herself to be governed, and on whom she
bestowed wealth, honours, and power.
It was in the year 1588 that the Earl of Leicester, who for several
years had been the favourite of the queen, died. It was not long before
she chose another of her courtiers to take his place. This was the Earl
of Essex, a young man of great courage, very handsome, and much
loved by the people. The earl soon gained great power over the
queen, and like all men who gain great power, he made many enemies.
Among these enemies were Sir Walter Raleigh and Robert Cecil, son of
Lord Burleigh.
The enemies of Essex at length found an opportunity of injuring
him in the eyes of the queen. A rebellion had broken out in Ireland
(1599), at the head of which was O'Neil, Earl of Tyrone. Raleigh
and Cecil persuaded the queen to send Essex as her general into
Ireland. They felt sure that Essex, though brave, had not the wisdom
nor the knowledge to enable him to carry on this difficult war. They
proved to be right.
Essex failed to put down the rebellion, and returned to London
disappointed and disgraced. Lord Mountjoy took his place as general in
THE QUEEN AND HER FAVOURITE. 395
Ireland, and after fierce fighting he succeeded in defeating O'Neil (1601).
The war was marked by great cruelty on both sides, and the land was
laid waste, towns and villages were burned to the ground over a large
part of Ireland ; but peace was at last restored, and the authority of
the queen was fixed in the country more firmly than before.
Meanwhile the enemies of Essex were not content with what they
had done. They brought charges against him, and accused him of
having played the part of a coward in the war against the Earl of
Tyrone. Essex was found guilty, and was sentenced to be imprisoned
in his own house. He was soon set at liberty, and in fierce anger
against his enemies he was unwise enough to try by force of arms to
compel the queen to punish Cecil and his friends.
He appeared in the streets of London with three hundred armed
men. He hoped that the Londoners, who had always been fond
of him, would rise and help him. But no one moved. Essex was im-
prisoned, and sent to the Tower. He was tried, and condemned to
death as a traitor. For some time Elizabeth refused to sign the order
for his death, but at last she consented to do so, and her favourite was
executed at the Tower.
There is a well-known story told of the death of Essex. It is said
that Queen Elizabeth ha-d given her favourite a" ring, and had told him
that if ever he needed her help in the time of danger or trouble, he
should send this ring to her. As he lay in prison shortly before his
death, the earl saw from the window of his cell a boy who, from his
appearance, he thought might be trusted with the precious ring. He
threw the ring through the window, the boy picked it up, and Essex
begged him to carry it to his cousin Lady Scrope.
But the boy, unluckily, made a mistake. He took the ring on
which Essex's life depended to Lady Nottingham, sister of Lady Scrope.
Now, Lady Nottingham was a bitter enemy of the earl's, and she kept
the ring. Elizabeth, so the story goes, waited long for the token
which she expected to receive, but it never came. Believing that
Essex was too proud or too angry to claim his life at her hands,
Elizabeth signed the fatal order ; and Essex, believing that Elizabeth
had been false to him and to her promise, met his death (1601).
After the earl's death the Countess of Nottingham fell ill. On her
death-bed she sent to beg the queen to come to her, and she confessed
what she had done. She begged the Queen's pardon for her crime.
Elizabeth was furious. She struck the dying countess in her fury.
" God may pardon you," she cried, " but I will never pardon you."
396 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The Death of the Great Queen.
" That great queen has now been lying two hundred and thirty years
in Henry Vll.'s Chapel. Yet her memory is still dear to the hearts of a
free people." — Macaulay (1832).
The long reign of Elizabeth was now drawing to its close, and its
close was sad and dark. Essex had been a favourite with the people,
and Elizabeth felt that she had lost the love of many of her subjects
by consenting to the death of a man whom she, too, loved. In her
old age she had grown feeble, and her proud spirit often deserted her.
She lay for hours by herself, speaking to no one, and refusing to be
comforted. She had no child, and her courtiers were beginning to
turn their thoughts from the old queen to the young king, who must
so soon follow her on the throne.
Cecil and Raleigh had already begun to write letters to James of
Scotland, for it was James VL,(75>King of Scotland, who, by right of
descent and by the will of Elizabeth herself, was now to become King
of England. The fear which had been expressed when Henry VII.
gave his daughter in marriage to the Scottish king, was now proved
to be well-founded. The Queen of England, the granddaughter of
Henry VII., was childless, and the Scottish king, descended from
Margaret Tudor,("'5) was to take his place upon the throne of England.
On the 24th of March, 1603, Queen Elizabeth died, at her palace at
Richmond, in the seventieth year of her age and the forty-fifth of her
reign. With all her faults she was one of the greatest of our sovereigns.
With her we come to the end of the Tudor period. She was the last
of the Tudors ; and, what is more, she was the last sovereign of England.
Never had England been greater or richer in famous men and famous
deeds than in the time of its last sovereign.
The next reign brought a Stuart king to the throne. This Stuart
king was king not only of England but of Scotland, and from that time
onwards the history of England and the history of Scotland go forward,
side by side, as the history of one great and united country. The last
•Queen of England lies in Westminster Abbey, and the beautiful monu-
ment raised to her memory may be seen to this day, in the stately
chapel built by her grandfather, which forms part of the ancient Abbey
of Westminster.
398 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
A NEW WORLD AND A NEW AGE.
Rolling- Back the Clouds.
" We sailed wherever ships could sail,
We founded many a mighty state ;
Pray God our greatness may not fail
Through craven fears of being great. " — Tennyson.
WE have now gone through the story of the Tudor period. With
all their faults, no one can deny that Henry VII., Henry VIII.,
and Elizabeth were great sovereigns; and that under them England
became great and prosperous. Indeed, the hundred and eighteen
years between the Battle of Bosworth Field and the death of Queen
Elizabeth may truly be said " to have been the most glorious years
in the history of England. For it must be remembered that up to
the end of the year 1602 England stood alone. Ireland was more of
a weakness than a strength, and Scotland was still a foreign country,
and very often an enemy's country. The glory of the Tudor period
is the glory of England.
It must, indeed, have been a wonderful time to live in. It must
have seemed as if all the world were changing, that all the old
things, and all the old thoughts which men were accustomed to,
were giving place to new things which no man up to that time had
ever dreamed of. Let us try to picture to ourselves some of these
great changes. Let us try to understand what were the new things
that came into the world between the death of Richard III. and the
death of Queen Elizabeth.
To begin with, it is true to say that the world itself was doubled
for every Englishman. On the preceding page we see a map of the
world as it was known to the poet Chaucer, to Henry V., the brave
victor of Agincourt, or to the men and women of Henry VI. 's time.
Mark how small is the part which stands out from the dark cloud.
Now look at the map on p. 399, which shows the world as it was
known to the Englishmen and Scotsmen who stood round King James I.
at his coronation. Mark how the clouds are rolled back, how the light
400 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
shines upon the great continent of America, upon the Cape of Good
Hope the southern point of Africa, upon Japan in the far east, and
even upon the coast of Australia in the distant southern sea.
Year after year during this wonderful hundred years, brave men
set out upon new and adventurous journeys. Each year the news
came back that in despite of stormy seas, of fierce enemies, of
sickness, and of all the dangers which beset the traveller in
unknown lands, some new point had been reached, some new way
discovered.
Over and over again, some bold adventurer died before his work
was done ; but as fast as one brave sailor or soldier fell a victim to
the dangers of the sea, to the spears and arrows of savage tribes,
or to the deadly fevers and diseases which sprang from the swamps
of North America, the jungles of India, and the African sands, another
was found to take his place. Every country in Europe sent its
bravest. Spain and Portugal led the way. The Dutch followed in
their footsteps.
Later on, English seamen took the lead. In 1486, the year in
which Lambert Simnel headed his rebellion against Henry VIL,
Bartholomew Diaz, a native of Portugal, sailing to the South, reached
the Cape of Good Hope. Six years later (1492) a still greater man
sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. It was in that year that Christopher
Columbus, the Genoese, first sighted North America, and brought to
Europe the tidings of that New World that has become so great
and important in our own days.
In 1497 another Portuguese sailor, Vasco da Gama, passed the
Cape of Good Hope and sailed into the Indian Ocean; and while
he sailed to the East, others were following Columbus to the West.
Let us look at the map of America. In North America we see the
great gulf which runs far back into the country which is now called
Canada. It is called the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In South America we
see an enormous country bearing the name of Brazil. It was in
the year 1500, in the reign of Henry VII., King of England, that
Corte Real, a Portuguese, first sailed into the Gulf of St. Lawrence,
and Pedro Cabral discovered Brazil. At the same time (1496 to
1502) Sebastian Cabot, a Bristol man, whose father was a Venetian,
discovered Newfoundland.
If we look at the map of India nowadays, we shall see that nearly
all of it is marked as forming part of the British Empire, but there
are still one or two places which belong to other countries. Among
them is the small State of Goa. If we look under the name Goa in
the map, we may see, written in small letters, t^e word Portuguese.
ROLLING BACK THE CLOUDS. 401
It was in the first year of the reign of Henry VIII. that the Portuguese
took Goa, which has belonged to them ever since.
Now let us turn back once more to the map of America. At the
foot of the map the continent of South America comes down to a
point. This point is called Patagonia, a country inhabited by men
so tall that ancient travellers brought home stories of a land inhabited
by giants. At the end of Patagonia there lies still farther to the
south an island, which is called Tierra del Fuego, or, the Land of Fire.
Between the mainland and the island there runs a narrow arm of
the sea, or strait. It was through this strait that Ferdinand Magellan,
the Portuguese, first sailed in the year 1520, and to this day the
Strait of Magellan bears his name.
Passing through the straits, he kept on his way through unknown
seas, until at last, in the year 1522, after a voyage of one thousand
one hundred and fifty-four days, he came back to Europe, having
sailed round the world. In 1521, the same year in which Henry
VIII. won from the Pope his title of "Defender of the Faith,"
Hernan Cortez, a valiant Spaniard, conquered the rich country of
Mexico. Eight years later, another great Spanish soldier, Francis
Pizarro, invaded Peru.
Nor was it the soldiers, the sailors, and the adventurers only who
helped to roll back the clouds from the unknown parts of the world.
Missionaries soon began to go forth to the farthest ends of the world,
longing to teach the heathen the story of Christ, and ready, if need
be, to give up their lives for their religion. In 1542, the year in
which poor Catharine Howard was beheaded, Francis Xavier, a French
monk, landed in India, and began to teach and preach to the natives.
And while some went south, some went east, and some west ; others
set their faces towards the north and tried to find a way round the
world through the ice and snow of the North Pole. In 1553, the
first year of Queen Mary's reign, Richard Counsellor, a sea captain,
of London, succeeded in passing round the North Cape at the top
of Norway, and sailing into the White Sea in Russia, the sea on
which Archangel now stands ; while in 1576 another great English
captain, Martin Frobisher, a Devonshire man, set out to find the North-
West Passage, or passage round the North American continent, a
road which many brave men have tried to find since his day.
402 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
England's Part in Rolling- Back the Clouds.
"Where shall the watchful sun,
England, my England,
Match the master-work you've done,
England my own ?
When shall he rejoice agen
Such a breed of mighty men
As come forward, one to ten,
To the song on your bugles blown,
England —
Down the years on your bugles blown."
W. E. Henley : " Rhymes and Rhythms.
By this time, the great discoveries had, for the most part, been
made, and now it was that Englishmen began in earnest to turn their
attention to the new lands of which their fathers had not known the
existence. Some went to find a new home, some to trade, some
to win new dominions for their queen ; others sailed away to hunt
for adventures, fully prepared to fight, and sometimes to take what
plunder they could from their enemies. Hawkins, Drake, Frobisher,
and Raleigh were the leaders of the English adventurers.
' In 1577 Drake began his famous journey round the world. He
fought the enemy wherever he found them. Every Spaniard was
always an enemy, and it is to be feared that most of those who
did not fall in with the wishes of Francis Drake were enemies too.
In 1580 Drake returned to England rich with the spoil gathered during
years of fighting and adventure, with waggon-loads of treasure, and
a name that will live for ever in the story of English romance.
The name of his ship was the " Golden Hind," and the story of those
who sailed and fought on this famous vessel is so strange and wonder-
ful, that no Englishmen ought ever to forget the name of Sir Francis
Drake and the " Golden Hind."
Nor should the names of our English sea captains be forgotten
in another great country in which English is spoken, namely The
United States of America. It was Drake who first travelled through the
most beautiful and the richest of all the States, the State of California.
It was Humphrey Gilbert who first planted a colony of Englishmen
in a new State, which he called, after the virgin Queen of England,
THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.
403
Virginia, Our own countrymen in North America have therefore
good reason to remember the " Sea-dogs " of Queen Elizabeth's time.
It was in 1583, in the twenty-fifth year of her reign, that
Queen Elizabeth first declared herself to be the sovereign of the
New Found Land, and the colony of Newfoundland is, to this day,
proud of being the oldest
colony in the British Empire.
Two years later, John Davis,
exploring in North America,
passed through the strait
which separates Greenland
from North America, and gave
it the name of Davis Strait.
And while the great English
nations of America were thus
growing up, the power of Eng-
land in another part of the
world was just beginning, like
a little seed, to spring above
the ground. It was in the last
years of the reign of Queen
Elizabeth (1600) that a Company
was formed to trade in the
East, and settlements, or Fac-
tories as they were called, were
first set up on the coast of
Malabar.
The Company was called
the East India Company. At
first it was weak, scarcely
able to protect its life from
the power of Spain, Portugal,
and France. As year by year
it grew in power, year by year
the territory over which it
ruled became larger, till at last,
from a little seed, it grew to be a great tree which overshadowed the
whole land; and first Spain, then Portugal, and, last of all, France,
had to yield to the masters of India, the English East India Company.
At the present day the King of England rules over 288,000,000
subjects in the great peninsula of India.
STATUE OF DRAKE ON PLYMOUTH HOE.
404 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Thing's "New" or "Old"?
"Unnumbered treasures ope at once, and here
The various offerings of the world appear.* — Pope.
We have seen how, during the hundred and eighteen years between
the accession of Henry VII. and the death of Queen Elizabeth, the
world seemed to be doubled in size for Englishmen. Lands which
no Englishmen had ever heard of, or ever visited, were made known
through the reports of travellers from all the nations of Europe-
The great continent of America was discovered, new lands in Africa and
Asia became known to the people of Europe, while even the far-off
coast of Australia was for the first time marked upon our maps.
But Englishmen who stayed at home soon began to know something
more about the new countries than even the travellers who returned
safely from their distant shores could tell them. It was a strange and
wonderful thing for a citizen of London, or for some country squire in
Yorkshire or Devonshire, to hear that Drake had crossed the Atlantic
and fought fierce battles with strange enemies, or to gather from big
books printed in Holland that Dutch sailors had found lands bright
with flowers and rich with treasure in the distant seas beyond India.
These accounts of battles and adventures thousands of miles from
home, the news of which only reached Europe years after they had
taken place, must have seemed almost like fairy tales to most English-
men. But it was not till they began to see with their own eyes the
treasures which these newly-discovered lands afforded, that they began
to understand what a difference the voyages of these bold sailors were
going to make to the Old Country. Not only did the world itself seem
to have doubled, but the things in it seemed to have doubled also.
It is strange to think how many things there are which we use every
day, and which we are accustomed to look upon as things which we
could not possibly get on without, which first became known in England
during the Tudor period.
Here is a table piled up with objects which are very well known to
us all. Let us see what they are. First we have a plate of potatoes,
the commonest of our vegetables. We are not all smokers, but there
are very few of us who are not familiar with the look of the pipes, cigars,
and tobacco which lie on the table. The potato is not the only common
vegetable which we perceive.
,|o6 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
There is a bundle of asparagus, a fine head of cauliflower, a couple
of artichokes ; there are two fruits which we all know very well, the
orange, of which so many millions are sold . in shops and in the
streets, and the cherry, whose red and white bunches we can see in
summer-time in almost any garden throughout the length and breadth
of England. And lastly, there is a pot of those bright tulips which
make our spring gardens so gay. What are we to call all these things ?
Are we to speak of them as " things new " or " things old " ? Certainly,
we who live in the reign of King Edward VII. can speak of them as
things which are old enough to go back far beyond the memory of any-
one who is now living.
Who would think it possible that English people, and more espe-
cially Irish people, could ever get on without potatoes ? How would
our smokers get on without their pipe or their cigar ? And yet we
have only to go back to the days of Queen Elizabeth to come to a
time when all the things which are represented in the picture were
things which were very new, and which the English people were
beginning to use for the first time in English history.
It was Sir Walter Raleigh who brought the potato and tobacco from
North America in the year 1592. It seems strange that the world ever
got on without potatoes and tobacco. The crop of potatoes in the
United Kingdom for a single year was no less than 5,633,000 tons, and
3,000,000 tons were brought into the country from abroad. In the
same period a tax was paid on no less than 63,765,000 pounds of
tobacco; and yet before the reign of Queen Elizabeth the people of
England and Ireland did not know the taste of a potato, and had never
even heard of smoking tobacco. It was in the year 1548 — the year in
which the Reformation began in England— that orange trees were first
brought into Portugal from China ; and from Portugal the trees spread
through Spain, France, and Italy.
The year (1540) in which Thomas Cromwell had his head cut off,
and in which Henry VIII. married Catharine Howard, was the year in
which cherry trees were first brought over from Holland and planted in
England ; and some forty years later (1578) tulip bulbs were brought
over from the same country, and planted in English gardens. The
artichoke we also owe to the Dutch. The asparagus and cauliflower
came to us in the last year of Queen Elizabeth's reign ; the former
from Asia, and the latter from the island of Cyprus.
It was not till after the death of Queen Elizabeth that we first hear
of two other articles being brought into England, which are perhaps
even more familiar to us than potatoes and tobacco. Queen Elizabeth
had neither tea nor coffee for her breakfast, and for the best reason.
THE OPEN BIBLE. 407
Tea and coffee were not known in England till more than fifty years
after her death ; and her Majesty, and those of her Majesty's subjects
who could afford it, were obliged to put up with a flagon of ale at
breakfast if they did not care to drink cold water.
CHAPTER XLIX.
LITERATURE AND ART IN THE TUDOR PERIOD.
The Open Bible.
"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."
Psalm cxix. 105.
EVERY man and woman in the world, rich or poor, must eat and drink ;
and so, perhaps, in one sense it may be said, that more people are
interested in eating and drinking than in anything else. It is therefore
fair to speak about potatoes, cherries, and so on, before we come to
the subject of books, of pictures, or other matters, which, though they
interest many people, do not interest all the world.
But it would be a very poor sort of a life which was made up only
of eating and drinking, smoking and sleeping ; and if the " hundred
years of the Tudor period " had added nothing to our treasures except
a few luxuries for the larder or the table, it would not be necessary for
us to study it with great care, or to be particularly thankful to our
forefathers who lived under Henry VIII. or Queen Elizabeth.
But happily there are very few people in England, whether they
be young or old, rich or poor, who do not give up some of their
time to books, and who have not learnt something through what is
written in books. There are few who at one time or another in
their lives have not seen or admired some beautiful picture, or some
stately building, or who have not read or heard some poem which
has pleased or moved them.
In the next few pages we shall see some pictures which will help
to remind us that we who live in England now, who are fond of
reading, who love beautiful pictures, and who care for beautiful
poetry, owe a great deal to those who lived in the Tudor period.
Nay more, we shall learn that many Englishmen who read little, 01
408
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
not at all, and who do not know a line of poetry, are still, without
themselves being aware of it, using words and uttering thoughts
which have as certainly come down to them from the days of Henry
or Elizabeth as have the potatoes and tobacco which Raleigh dis-
covered, and with which they are so familiar.
Here is one of these pictures which help to tell this story. What
does the picture show ? Half a dozen books upon a table, that
SOME FAMOUS BOOKS OF TUDOR TIMES.
is all. Yes, but what are these books? Let us see if we can read
their titles. There is one book whose name is familiar to all. It
is the Bible, and note that it is lying open for every man to read.
It is to the reign of King Henry VIII. that we owe the open Bible.
As far back as the time of Richard II. Wycliffe had translated the
Bible, but very few copies of the book had been made, and the
priests had forbidden men to read the Bible in the English tongue.
In 1526, three years before the fall of Wolsey, William Tyndall, a
scholar of Oxford, translated the New Testament into English, and
THE OPEN BIBLE. 409
had it printed abroad. Some copies were brought over to England,
but they were burnt by order of the bishops. Four years later
Tyndall translated a great part of the Old Testament, but he was
not allowed to finish his work, for he was thrown into prison at
Antwerp, in Belgium, and was there put to death by the Emperor
Charles V. (1536).
Luckily another Englishman had been at work on the same task
as Tyndall. Miles Coverdale brought out a translation of the Bible
the year before Tynda'U's death. It was first printed abroad, and
then in England. Two years after it came out King Henry VIII.
gave permission for the book to be freely printed and read, and in
that year (1537) it first became lawful for Englishmen to read the
Bible in English. Three years later a royal order was made that
the English Bible should be read in all the churches throughout the
land,1 and though attempts were made from time to time to stop the
reading of the book; from that time to this not a day has passed on
which the Bible, written in a language which every Englishman
can understand, has not been read aloud in some English church.
The Bible of Henry VIII. 's time was not exactly the same as
that which we use now. The one which is generally used at the
present time is that which was translated in the time of James I,
who came to the throne on the death of Queen Elizabeth, just after
the Tudor period. But the great thing we have to remember is that
it was in the time of Henry VIII. that Englishmen were first freely
allowed to read the Bible in their own tongue.
Now let us look at some of the other books upon the table in the
picture. There is a small book standing up near the Bible. On it
are written the words " Common Prayer." This is the Prayer Book, or
Book of Common Prayer, which is used by a great number of people
at the present day. The Book of Common Prayer comes to us, like
the open Bible, from the Tudor period. The first Prayer Book was
printed in the time of Edward VI. (1549).
A second copy, in which some things had been altered came out
three years later. The Prayer Book of Edward VI. is not exactly the
same as that which is used now, for a hundred years later, in the
reign of Charles II. (1662), some further changes were made, and it
is the book as it was altered in Charles II.'s time which is now used.
But it is true to say that the English Prayer Book really comes from
the time of Edward VI.
It must not be supposed, however, that what is in the Prayer
1 The Bible which was ordered to be read in all churches was called "Cranmer's Bible," and
had been prepared under the direction of Archbishop Cranmer.
4io HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Book was written for the first time in Edward VI. 's day, nor
must we imagine that the English people had been without a Prayer
Book up to that time. But the Prayer Book which English people
had used had been written in Latin, and a great part of this Latin
book was translated nto English by those whom Edward VI. ap-
pointed to do the work.
The Psalms of David were translated from Latin into English, and
many of the prayers which are to be found in the Prayer Book are
translated from Latin prayers which had been used by Christians
in all countries and in all ages, and which are still used by them
throughout the world. It is very fortunate for us that these things
were translated from Latin into English in the Tudor period, for
there can be no doubt that those who did the work at that time were
able to write simple and beautiful English.
Shakespeare.
"Soul of the age!
Th' applause ! delight I the wonder of our stage !
My Shakespeare rise I
******
Thou art a monument, without a tomb,
And art aliue still, while thy booh doth Hue,
And we have wits to read, and praise to giue."
Ben Jonson : "To the Memory of Shakespeare.
Now look at the name on the back of the large thick book. It
is a name which everybody knows. It is the single word Shakespeare.
Shakespeare, one of the greatest writers that ever lived, was born
and wrote during the Tudor period. Wherever the English language
is spoken, and English books are read, the name and the writings
of William Shakespeare are known. It is strange to think that though
the name and the writings of William Shakespeare are familiar to
all the world, we really know very little about the great writer himself.
There are some things, however, which we do know, and which must
be told here.
William Shakespeare was born in the year 1564, at Stratford-upon-
Avon, in Warwickshire. He was the son of John and Itfary Shake-
speare. It is not known exactly what was the occupation of his
41 2 HISTORV OF ENGLAND.
father, but it is plain that he held a good position among his fellow-
townsmen, for at various times he was appointed Alderman and
High Bailiff of Stratford. Little is known of William Shakespeare
himself. It is probable that he was sent to school at the Stratford
Grammar School. It is clear that he must have received a good
education, and, like most boys of the time, he doubtless acquired some
knowledge of Latin. In 1582, in his nineteenth year, he married Anne,
daughter of John Hathaway, living at Shottery, a village within a mile
of Stratford.
Five years after his marriage he left Stratford for London. It
appears that all this time he was in difficulties for want of money,
and many stories are told of the shifts to which the great poet was
put to earn a living. According to one account he picked up a
few pence by holding the horses at the theatre door, and is even
said to have been a call-boy, whose duty it was to inform the actors
when it was their turn to go out on the stage. Whatever be doubtful,
it is, however, certain that between 1588 and 1589 he commenced
writing his great plays, the first being Love's Labour's Lost.
This was followed by Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice,
and many others. Hamlet appeared in 1602, when Shakespeare was
thirty-eight years old. The last play is said to have been The Tempest,
written in 1610, when James I. was king.
Of the poet's later life we know some facts with certainty. In
1597, at the age of thirty-three, he returned to Stratford and bought
the principal house there, which he called " New Place." At New
Place he lived until his death in 1616. He was buried in Holy
Trinity Church, Stratford, where his monument is still to be seen.
Although Shakespeare had three children, his family soon died out,
and none of his descendants are living at the present day.
This is, indeed, but a short account of the life of a very great
man. But if we do not know much about Shakespeare himself, it
will be only our own fault if we do not know a great deal about the
wonderful plays which he wrote, Hamlet, Henry V., Julius Casar,
Macbeth, Othello, and many others. It is no use talking much about
these plays here ; all English men and English women ought to
read them. But there are one or two things about them which should
be said even in a short history of England such as this.
It is probably true that ten Englishmen use the words of
Shakespeare for every one who has read his plays. This may seem
strange at first, but the fact is easily explained. The plays of
Shakespeare have been read, repeated, or acted by so many millions of
English-speaking people since the time when they were written, that
SffA KESPEA RE. 413
the very phrases which they contain have become part of the English
language. Shakespeare said so many things well, and put so many
good thoughts into such good words, that those who came after
him have found no better way of saying the same things, and have
been content to use just the words which Shakespeare himself used.
Scarcely a day passes without our using some phrase or sentence
taken from Shakespeare, and very often we do not know that the
words which we use have really come to us from the great poet of
Queen Elizabeth's time.
There is only one book which English people quote from more
often than from Shakespeare, and that is The Bible ; and these two
books, the Bible and Shakespeare, have helped to make it certain
that as long as the English language is spoken, the words and
expressions of Queen Elizabeth's time will not be forgotten.1
Here are some common phrases of our English speech which we
owe to William Shakespeare. Some of them, perhaps, were phrases
which were known before Shakespeare's time, but it is because Shake-
speare used them, and put them into his plays, that they have now
become part of the everyday language of Englishmen. " What's in a
name?'1'1 "Conscience makes cowards of us all," "All that glitters is not
gold" " Trifles light as air" "A pound of flesh " " To be or not to be?"
" A sea of troubles" " Patience on a monument" " Love's labour lost"
" Much ado about nothing" " Sweet are the uses of adversity ," and many
others.
And in the same way many words, thoughts, and sentences out
of the Bible have become part of the common speech of all English-
men, even of those who never read the Bible. For instance : " The
labourer is worthy of his hire" " Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof"
" Darkness which may be felt" " Making bricks without straw " " Spare
the rod and spoil the child " " Job's comforter" " The patience of Job"
" Casting pearls before swine" " To escape by the skin of the teeth" " A
good Samaritan" " The Prodigal Son" " The widow's mite" and " A
talent"
1 The authorised version of the Bible was first printed in 1611, eight years after the death of
Queen Elizabeth, but ihe language is the language of the last half of the Tudor period.
414 HISTORY OF
Nowhere.5
"For I dipped into the future, far as human eye can see,
Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be."
Tennyson : " Locksley Hall"
We have not come to the end of the books on the table in our
picture. One of them is called The Faerie Queene. "The Faerie
Queene " is a very famous English poem. It was written by Edmund
Spenser (b. 1553, d. 1599), who wrote in the time of Queen Elizabeth.
The poem is in twenty-four chapters or " cantos." It describes the
adventures of a brave knight called the " Red Cross Knight," and of
a beautiful maiden called " Una." The poem is really an allegory—
that is to say, a story which is not only interesting in itself, but which
has a hidden meaning in it.
The story of the " Red Cross Knight" and Una is intended to teach
us to love truth and goodness, and to hate falsehood and evil. Many
of those who have not read Spenser's " Faerie Queene," have read
the Pilgrim's Progress. The " Pilgrim's Progress " is also an allegory,
and those who have read it will easily understand what is meant
by the word.
Then there is another small book on the table called "Bacon's
Essays." These are the writings of the famous Francis Bacon (b. 1561,
d. 1626), who is often called Lord Bacon.1
These Essays are very celebrated. In the first place, because
Francis Bacon, who wrote them, was one of the greatest and cleverest
men of his time, and, indeed, one of the cleverest Englishmen who
ever lived. In the second place, the essays are celebrated because
they are so well written, and contain so much wisdom. The essays
are short ; each is about a different subject. One is an essay on
"Truth," another on " Friendship," a third on "Gardens," and so on.
They were first written in Latin, but were afterwards re- written by
Bacon himself in English. The English in which they are written is
wonderfully clear and good.
The only book we have not yet noticed is the one which bears the
name " Utopia" (1526). Utopia was a very famous book at the time
it was written. The writer was Sir Thomas More (b. 1480, d. 1535), of
whom we read in the story of the Reformation. The name " Utopia "
1 Francis Bacon's real title was " Viscount St. Albansv Baron Verulam."
1 ' NO WHER E." 415
is really made up of two Greek words which mean " Nowhere," and
the book is an account of a country which did not really exist, but
which Sir Thomas More pictured to himself as what he would like
England to be.
The chief thing to remember about the " Utopia " is, that the people
wno were supposed to live in this land of " Nowhere" three hundred
years ago, enjoyed many things which were really unknown in any
country before the days in which we now live, and some things which
even we should like to have, but have not yet got. In " Nowhere "
there was a nine hours' day ; no one was allowed to work more than
nine hours out of the twenty-four. It is pleasant to think that we in
England have at last got as far as this, and in most mills and factories
the hours of work are nine hours only, and already there are many
places in which nine hours have been shortened to eight.
In " Nowhere " every child had to go to school, and all the teaching
was free — the parents had tb pay no school fees. It was not till the
year 1870 that a law was made giving power to compel all children to
go to school, and it was not till the year 1891 that another law was
made which gave to every parent the right to send his children to
school and to have them taught without paying any school fees. So it
has taken us three hundred years to get some of the good things which
were enjoyed by the people of " Nowhere."
Unfortunately, we are still behind the people of Utopia in some
matters. In Utopia, everyone cared for his neighbour's good, everyone
had a clean and healthy house to live in, no one was overworked. It
would be a good thing if we could truly say that, in these and many
other respects, England in our own day was as happy and well-off as
Sir Thomas More's country of Utopia.
Now we have come to the end of the books which stand upon the
table, but it must not be supposed that these are all the great and
famous books which were written in the Tudor period. There are
many other writers, about whom there is not room to tell. There
were Massinger (b. 1583, d. 1640) and Ford (b. 1586, d. 1639), writers of
plays, Ben Jonson (b. 1574, d. 1637), Poet Laureate — a really great
poet; there were Beaumont (b. 1584, d. 1616) and Fletcher (b. 1576,
d. 1625), also verY famous play-writers. The works of all these writers
have come down to us, and there is much in them which is of great
interest and beauty. Perhaps if they had lived at another time we
should have known and admired their works even more than we do,
but the wonderful genius of Shakespeare shines so brightly that we
have come to take less notice of the other play-writers who lived and
wrote in his day. Still, if we want to have a real knowledge of the
416 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
writers of the Tudor period, we must not forget Beaumont and
Fletcher, Massinger and Ford, or, least of all, Ben Jonson — " Rare
Ben Jonson " as he has been called.
But enough has been said in this chapter to show that the days
of Henry, Edward, and Elizabeth were very rich in great writers,
and that some of the most famous books in the English language
have come down to us from their times.
Art in the Tudor Period.
"A famous age in modern times for learning in every hind, •
wherein painting was revived^ and poetry flourished, and the Greek language
was restored." — Dry den : Preface to "Juvenal."
At page 291 there is a picture of King Henry VIII., and if we turn
back to what is said about that picture we shall read that the art
of painting portraits began to be practised with great skill and success
about King Henry's time.
But it was not only the painting of portraits, but the painting of
other pictures, which improved during these years. Some of the
most famous painters in the world lived during the Tudor period.
The most famous of them were not Englishmen, but some of them
lived and painted in England. Many of the pictures which they
painted are still to be seen in England, and all their most famous
pictures have been copied so often that we in England feel familiar
with them although we may never have seen the pictures themselves.
For these reasons it would not be right in a history of England
to leave out all account of the great artists of other countries.
Besides, we should not fully understand how wonderful a time this
Tudor period was, if we were not told that it was celebrated, not
only for its great sovereigns and statesmen, its great sailors and
explorers, its great preachers and great writers, but also for its
great painters. The picture of Henry VIII. at page 291 is copied
from a, painting by Hans Holbein (b. 1494, d. 1543), who was born in
Germany, but who lived for many years of his life in England. His
paintings are very famous.
Here is a copy of another picture ; very likely many of those who
read this book will have seen it before. The picture which is here
copied was painted by a wonderful Italian artist, whom many people
ART IN THE TUDOR PERIOD.
believe to be the greatest painter that ever lived. His name was
Raphael Sanzio d'Urbino (b. 1483, d. 1520). Urbino was a small town
near Florence at which Raphael was born.
The picture has a double interest. In the first place, it is interest-
ing because of its beauty, and because of the fact that it was painted
by Raphael about whom we are reading. In the second place, it is of
interest because it is a picture of Raphael himself, which he must
have drawn from his own
reflection in the looking-
glass.
There were many other
famous painters who lived
during the Tudor period,
some of whose pictures
we can see at this day in
the National Gallery in
London, or in other great
collections of pictures in
England and abroad.
Among them are Albert
Diirer (b. 1471, d. 1528),
a great German painter
and engraver, and Cor-
reggio (b. 1494, d. 1534)
and Titian (b. 1477, d.
I576), great Italian
painters. The names of
others will be found in
.the list of famous persons
given in this book. On
page 418 there is one
more picture of a great
work of art — a statue and
not a painting. It is a copy of a statue by Michael Angelo (b. 1474,
d. 1564), a native of Florence. Michael Angelo was one of the
greatest painters and sculptors that ever lived, and besides being a
sculptor and a painter, he was a poet and a musician. The statue,
of which we see the picture, is part of a great monument which
was carved by Michael Angelo over the tomb of Lorenzo de' Medici,
the famous Prince of Florence.
There is a story about Michael Angelo which will help us to
understand how great an artist he was. When he was a boy of
o
PORTRAIT OF RAPHAEL, BY HIMSELF.
{From a photograph by Alinari, Florence.)
4i8
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
fourteen years old he was sent to the house of a very famous painter
to learn his art. But so clever was the pupil, that instead of having
to pay anything to his teachers, he received from them payment in
return for the wonderful work he did.
Very little has been told about these great artists in this book,
PORTION OF THE TOMB OF LORENZO, DUKE OF URBINO, BY MICHAEL ANGELO,
IN THE MEDICIS CHAPEL, FLORENCE.
(From a photcgraph by Alii.ari, Florence.)
but any of us who care for art, for drawing, for painting, for beau-
tiful pictures and beautiful sculptures, will be certain at one time or
another to see and admire paintings or statues by some of them.
It will then be useful and pleasant to know something about the
time in which these artists lived, and to remember when 'it was that
PARLIAMENT IN TUDOR TIMES. 419
they did their work. Some of the best pictures which were painted
during the Tudor period can be seen without any payment in the
great collection of pictures in the National Gallery in London.
CHAPTER L.
PARLIAMENT- DRESS-DWELLINGS-SCHOOLS-THE
CALENDAR.
Parliament in Tudor Times.
"Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel."
"All things by turn and nothing long."
THE history of Parliament during the Tudor period is not a very
bright one. Parliament was called together several times, but it
cannot be said that it did much, or that what it did was of much
good to the country, or brought much credit to itself.
The Parliaments of Edward IV. and Richard III. were much
braver and more outspoken than those of Henry VIII. and Eliza-
beth, and after Elizabeth's death Parliament soon became the
strongest power in the land. But the Tudor kings and queens were
nearly always masters of the House of Commons, and made its
members do very much what they commanded them to do. When-
ever the king or queen wished to put some great man to death,
Parliament was always ready to pass a Bill of Attainder, or to de-
clare that the person who had to be got rid of was guilty of
High Treason. Whichever religion happened to be the stronger, it
was always easy to get a Parliament to declare that religion to be
the only right and true one.
There was, however, one matter on which even the Tudor
Parliaments were very determined; and that was the right to vote,
or refuse to vote, money. When Wolsey, at the time of his greatest
power, came down to the House of Commons and requested the
House te vote £800,000, the members sat silent. Wolsey, angry
420 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
and astonished that they should dare to treat him thus, called on
a member by name. The member bowed, said nothing, and sat
down again.
The cardinal could bear the silence no longer. He told them
that he came on a message from the king, and that he expected an
answer. At last, Sir Thomas More, who was the Speaker, kneeling
on one knee, replied " that the House was indeed abashed at the
presence of so great a man, but that by their ancient rights they
were not bound to give an answer, and that they would talk over
the matter when the cardinal had gone." The proud cardinal left
them in anger.
A second time he came back and asked them for the vote, and
again they refused to speak of the matter while he was there. At
length, after a long debate, the House decided to vote, not the sum
of £800,000 which the king had asked, but a sum less than half that
amount, and payment of this was to be spread over four years. In
this way King Henry got a lesson which he did not forget. He found
that, when it came to a question of money, Parliament would refuse
to obey even his orders. He was very careful in the future not to
summon a Parliament oftener than he could help, and he did his
best to get money in any way rather than by a vote of the House of
Commons.
On one other occasion did Parliament show a spirit of independ-
ence, or rather one member was found ready to do so. This was
in the time of Queen Elizabeth, when Peter Wentworth, a Cornish
member, spoke out pretty plainly about the queen's interference
with the House of Commons. He declared that the queen had no
right to dictate to the House of Commons. He said so in a speech
which got him into great trouble. He was put into prison, a
Committee of Members was appointed to examine him, and he was
finally sent to the Tower. After a month the queen ordered that
he should be released, and he was allowed to go back to the House
of Commons, where he was compelled to go down on his knees and
listen to a lecture from the Speaker.
This, however, did not cure Wentworth of his plain speaking,
and on two other occasions he was imprisoned for the same offence
— that of speaking his opinion clearly about the queen and her policy,
and denying her right to interfere with the House of Commons. It
was well that there was one courageous man in the Parliament of
Queen Elizabeth who was ready to risk his own comfort and his own
life for the independence of Parliament. But until the strong hand
of the Tudor kings and queens was removed, the House of Commons
PAR LI A ME NT MO NO POL IES. 421
was unable to play a very important part in the affairs of the country.
It may, perhaps, be said with truth that the country did not get on
very badly, although Parliament was not so powerful as it became
afterwards in the reign of the Stuart kings who succeeded the Tudors.
It is lucky that though Parliament did so little that was good or
useful during all this time, the country grew rich and strong and
became respected abroad with very little help from Parliament.
But though the House of Commons did now and then stand firm
when it was asked to pay money, it really did very little more than
what the king or queen told it to do. It must not be forgotten that
the Tudor kings, Henry VII. and Henry VIII., were much richer
than the Kings of England who had gone before them. They kept
a great deal of the money taken from the great nobles and the monas-
teries, and thus they were able to spend large . sums without having
to ask Parliament to vote taxes.
Queen Elizabeth, when she wanted money, found another plan
of getting it. She sold to rich people the right to make or to sell
all sorts of different things which were much in use at the time. This
right to make or to sell a particular thing was called a " Monopoly."
It is wonderful what a number of these monopolies there were.
In return for large sums of money, Elizabeth gave to different
people the sole right to sell salt, currants, iron, gunpowder, vinegar,
brandy (or, as it was then called, Aqua Vita), Latin grammars, paper,
starch, and many other things.
Here are some lines which are supposed to give an account
of a conversation between two citizens of London about these
monopolies. We see that " monopolies " made a real difference
to those who had to wear dirty linen and dear boots because of
them.
THIRD CITIZEN.
"• There is some hope we shall have justice now.
You see how brown this band is ; well, my wife
Says that the patent makes all soap so dear
She cannot wash my linen."
FIRST CITIZEN.
" Ay, and on leather
There's a monopoly ! These shoes of mine
Cost half a crown too much, and all to feed
Some idle courtier." Sterling: " Strafford."
There was one thing which took place in the reign of Henry VII.
which was of great importance both to England and to Ireland, a
422 HISTORY OF ENGLAND,
mention of which must not be left out here. This was the passing of
" Poynings' Act." Poynings' Act was an Act passed by the Parliament
of Ireland in the year 1494, at a time when Sir Edward Poynings wae
Lord- Deputy or Governor of Ireland, and was named after him.
By this Act it was declared that from that time forward all Acts
of Parliament passed by the Parliament of England before the year
1494 should have force and be obeyed in Ireland. It further declared
that no Parliament should be held in Ireland without the consent
of the King of England, and that if an Irish Parliament did pass
laws, the King of England might " disallow," or refuse to assent
to these laws. If the King of England disallowed an Act passed
by the Irish Parliament, the Act had no effect, and no one was bound
to obey it.
Thus the Parliament of England, though it did not get power to
make laws for Ireland, did get the power to prevent any laws being
made in Ireland of which the King of England and his ministers
did not approve.
Poynings' Act lasted for three hundred years. It was repealed
in the year 1782, in the reign of George III., and for a short time
Ireland had a separate Parliament which could make laws which
could not be disallowed in the way laid down in Poynings' Act.
After the year 1800, the separate Irish Parliament was done away
with, and Irish members were sent over to sit in the Parliament
of the United Kingdom at Westminster.
Dresses and Houses.
"/'// be at charge for a looking-glass,
And entertain a score or two of tailors,
To study fashions to adorn my body.
Since I am crept in favour with myself,
I will maintain it with some little cost"
Shakespeare : " Richard III.''
It was the fashion in the Tudor times to spend a great deal of
money on dress. Both men and women decked themselves in silks
and velvets, and the pictures of the time give us some notion of
the gorgeous dresses which were worn. Here is an account of the
dress worn by the admiral who went to welcome Anne of Cleves
DRESSES AND HOUSES.
423
at Calais. It reminds one of the old nursery rhyme of the famous
ship, in which
" The captain wore a chain of gold
Round about his neck."
" And so marching towards Calais, a mile and
more from the town, met her Grace the Karl of
Southampton, Great Admiral of England, and ap-
parelled in a coat of purple velvet, cut on cloth of
gold, and tied with great eglets 1 and trefoils of
gold, to the number of CCC, and baldrick-wise* he
wore a chain, at the which did hang a whistle of
gold, set with rich stones of great value. And in
this company XXX gentlemen of the King's house-
hold, very richly apparelled with great massive chains,
and in especial, Sir Francis Bryan and Sir Thomas
Seymour's chains were of great value and strange
fashion. Beside this, the Lord Admiral had a great
number of gentlemen in blue velvet and crimson satin,
and his yeomen damask of the same pattern, and the
mariners of his ship in satin of Bruges, both coats and
A. "POINTED" WINDOW,
slops 3 of the same colour ; which
Lord Admiral, with low obeisance
welcomed her, and so brought her
into Calais by the Lantern Gate, where
the ships lay in the haven garnished
with their banners, pencells,4 and flags
pleasantly to behold."
The dress of the ladies
was as fine as that of the men.
Queen Elizabeth set the
example of wearing the enor-
mous starched ruffs, or cellars,
which are to be seen in nearly
all the pictures of this time.
So great were the sums spent
upon dress, that from time
to time the king or the queen issued orders forbidding people to
spend more than a certain amount of money upon their dress and
: " Eglets" = " Aiguillettes," or tassels-
2 " Baldrick-wise " = in the form of a " baldrick," or belt.
3 " Slops " = breeches.
* "Pencells" = pennants, or small pointed flags.
PERPENDICULAR WINDOW.
424 JJ.ISTORV OF ENGLAND,
adornments. But these laws did not do much to prevent people
from spsnding their money. Fashions were then, as they arc now,
too strong for the law.
If we want to know the kind of dress which was worn by men
who were not very rich, we have only to look at the Bluecoat Boys,
or scholars of Christ's Hospital, in London, who still wear the long
blue coat, knee breeches and yellow stockings which were worn by
boys at the school when it was founded in 1553.
But although the dresses of the time were rich and costly, some of
the commonest articles which we wrear now were either unknown
or were known for the first time in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
The queen was the first among her people to wear silk stockings,
a pair of which was presented to her as a great treasure.
While the dresses which people wore became richer and more
splendid than before, the houses in which the richer part of the
population lived became more spacious, more comfortable, and more
durable than ever before. It is the custom to speak of the Tudor
or Elizabethan style of architecture, by which is meant the style
in which houses and churches were built during the time of the
Tudors.
On page 423 we have pictures of two windows. One of them is
what is called a Pointed window. All the arches in it go up to a
point. It was built a long time before the Tudor period. The other
was built in the time of Queen Elizabeth. In it the upright shaft,
or mullion, of the window goes straight up to the top without
forming an arch. This style of building a window is called the
Perpendicular style, because the mullions of the windows are " per-
pendicular." This style was adopted soon after the " Black Death,"
at the beginning of the fifteenth century, perhaps because it was
cheaper to build in it than in the older " Pointed style." Some of the
most famous buildings in England built in Tudor times, and in the
Perpendicular style, are the chapel of King's College, Cambridge,
and Hatfield House, the residence of the Marquess of Salisbury in
Hertfordshire.
426 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Colleges and Schools.
"Most Merciful God and Loving Father, we give Thee most humble and
hearty thanks for Thy great bounty bestowed upon us of this House, by
its especial benefactors . . . humbly beseeching Thee so to bless our
honest endeavours that the Church and Commonwealth of this land may
be bettered by our studies, and that we ourselves may finally be mada
partakers of everlasting happiness."— From the Form of Thanksgiving for
Founders and Benefactors in one of the Colleges in the University of Oxford.
There is no time in England when more was done for education
than the Tudor period. We have already seen how Cardinal Wolsey
founded the great college of Christ Church in the University of Oxford
(1546), and between the years 1485 and 1603 no fewer than thirteen
other colleges were founded at Oxford and Cambridge.
Many of our most famous public schools also date from this time.
Winchester, it is true, is older, for it was founded by William of Wykeham
in the year 1387. Eton, too, which was founded from Winchester,
dates from the time of Henry VI. (1440), but Harrow (1571), Rugby
(1567), Shrewsbury (1551), St. Paul's (1509), Merchant Taylors' (1561),
Westminster (1560), Christ's Hospital (1553), are all great Public School!
which began their history in the days of the Tudors.
And all over the country there are ancient Grammar Schools which
are still doing good and noble work, which were founded under
Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary or Elizabeth.
If we were to give the list of all the schools which date from the
Tudor period, we should have to print hundreds of names and to
mention schools in every county of England. Certainly every scholar
ought to be grateful to the Tudor sovereigns for the help they have
given to so many generations of English boys.
Unfortunately, in those days not much trouble was taken to start
schools for girls. Thus it happened that the boys got the whole of the
benefit. Now, however, some of the money which was left to support
the boys' schools is very wisely being used to found good schools for
girls also, and so English girls will some day, perhaps, have as much
reason to be grateful to Queen Bess and her brother, King Edward,
as English boys.
427
Old Style and New Style, OP the Change in the
Calendar.
"See the minutes, how they run;
How many make the hour full complete,
How many hours bring about the day,
How many days will finish up the year,
How many years a mortal man may Hue."
Shakespeare: "Henry VI.," Part 3.
One very interesting thing happened during Elizabeth's reign which
must be mentioned by itself, because it has nothing to do with any
of the matters about which we have been reading. It is a thing which
ought to interest us now, because it really makes a difference to us
who live in the present day. It is the great change in the Calendar
made by Pope Gregory XIII. in the year 1582. Everybody knows that
there are 365 days in a year, but everybody does not know that besides
the 365 days, there are also in every year 5 hours, 48 minutes, and
49 seconds ; that is to say, that the earth takes 365 days, 5 hours, 48
minutes, 49 seconds to go round the sun.
Before the time of Gregory it was quite well known that the year
was made up of 365 days and something over, but there had been a
mistake in reckoning up the exact amount left over. The length of
the year had been reckoned as 365 days, 6 hours. Now between 365
days, 6 hours, which was the wrong time, and 365 days, 5 hours,
48 minutes, 49 seconds, which was the right time, there was little
difference — only 11 minutes and 11 seconds.
But if we multiply n minutes and n seconds several hundred
times, we get a big figure in the course of many years ; and thus it
had come about that the calendar had got seriously "out of order."
The 24th of June was no longer the real Midsummer Day, and the days
did not really begin to get longer after the 2ist of December, as they
ought to have done. The mistake in Gregory's time had grown to as
much as ten days.
It was high time, therefore, that this mistake should be corrected,
and Gregory did a very wise thing when he issued an order com-
manding that every country should drop ten days out of its reckoning
of the year, and begin to date everything ten days later. The Roman
Catholic countries which obeyed the Pope did what they were
428 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
commanded, and took up the new way of reckoning the year. This
new way was called the New Style.
England, and some other countries which were at that time un-
friendly to the Pope, refused to make the change ; and it was not till
a hundred and seventy years later, in the year 1751, and in the reign
of King George II., that the change was made in England. Thus it
happened that for a long time the different countries of Europe kept
their calendars in different ways ; some, such as England, kept to the
Old Style, which was wrong; while others, such as Italy, France, and
Spain, accepted the New Style, which was right. For this reason we
often find in old books dates given in both the old and the new styles,
thus: 3rd September, O.S., i4th September, N.S., I74O.1 Under the
Old Style the year began on the 25th of March, while under the New
Style it commences on the ist of January. This is why, in some
English Histories, we find dates given thus, " March 23rd, i6f^."
In Russia at the present day the New Style has not been accepted.
There are still some things in England to remind us of the Old- Style
calendar. Some people still make a cake for Twelfth Night— that is to
say, the 6th of January. Twelfth Day is really only the old Christmas
Day, or 25th of December.
1 The difference of the time in Gregory's alteration in the Calendar was ten days ; at the time
of the alteration in England it had increased to eleven days.
429
PART FIVE.
THE STUARTS.
1603—1714.
NOTE.
The hundred and eleven years which followed the death of
Queen Elizabeth contain the Stuart period of our history,
during which the six sovereigns of the House of Stuart
reigned over Great Britain. The period is remarkable
as one of great political conflicts, during which the
foundations of the Constitutional Monarchy of the
United Kingdom were laid.
The Tudor sovereigns had attempted to rule without the
aid of Parliament, and they had been in a large
measure successful. The power of the Crown in the
time of Henry VIII., and of Elizabeth, was immense ;
that of Parliament was insignificant. Under the
Stuarts a great change took place. Weak sovereigns
like James I. and Charles I. were unable to follow in
the footsteps of Henry and Elizabeth, and they soon
found themselves face to face with the opposition of
the House of Commons, which grew as the king
showed an ever increasing disregard for its powers and
its privileges. In the struggle which followed, the
Crown was for a moment swept aivay, and the Commons
appeared to be absolutely triumphant. But, as has so
often happened, the English people, though ready to
accept changes ', were not willing that those changes
should be very great, or hastily made. The Crown was
restored, the king reigned again, but William and Mary,
and Anne — the last of the Stuart sovereigns — reigned
with powers far more limited than those which were
exercised by Elizabeth and claimed by Charles I.
Government by the people through Parliament was not yet
secured, but the right of Parliament, and especially of
the House of Commons, to take a direct part in the
government of the country was acknowledged. It is of
this great political struggle between Crown and Parlia-
ment, with all its moving and exciting incidents, that
we are now to read the story.
43°
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
CHAPTER LI.
James Stuart, King- of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
1603—1625.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I.
James I. (James VI. of Scotland), son of
Mary, Queen of Scots and Henry
Darnley, b. 1566, became King of
"Great Britain" 1603, d. 1625.
Anne Of Denmark, daughter of Frederick
II., wife of James I., m. 1589, d. 1619.
Henry, eldest son of James I. and Anne,
b. 1594, d. 1612.
Charles, second son of James I. and Anne,
b. 1600, afterwards King of England.
Elizabeth, daughter of James and Anne, m.
Frederick V., Elector Palatine, 1613.
Henry IV. of Navarre, King of France, d.
1610.
LOUIS XIII., King of France.
Philip III., King of Spain, d. 1621.
Philip IV., King of Spain.
Rudolf II , Emperor, d. 1612.
Matthias, Emperor, d. 1619.
Ferdinand II., Emperor.
Clement VIII., Pope, d. 1605.
Leo XL, Pope, d. 1605.
Paul V., Pope, d. 1621.
Gregory XV., Pope, d. 1623.
Urban VIII. , Pope.
Eobert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, d. 1612.
Francis BaCOn, Viscount St. Albans, Lord
• Chancellor, d. 1626.
Sir Walter Raleigh, executed 1618.
George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.
Robert Carr, Viscount Rochester, afterwards
Earl of Somerset, d. 1616.
Cardinal Richelieu, chief minister of France.
Great Writers :—
William Shakespeare, d. 1616.
Ben Jqnson.
Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Albans,
d. 1626.
John Fletcher, d. 1625.
Philip Massinger, d. 1640.
Francis Beaumont, d. 1616.
John Ford, d. 1639
Cervantes (Spaniard), author of " Don
Quixote," d. 1616.
InigO Jones, architect.
Astronomers :—
Galileo, Florentine.
Johann Kepler, German. .
Painters :—
Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish.
Van Dyck, Flemish.
GuidO, Italian.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF JAMES I.
1603. Accession of James to the throne of
England.
Cobham's conspiracy. Trial of Raleigh.
1604. Hampton Court Conference held.
1605. Gunpowder Plot.
1608. Protestant settlement of Ulster.
Quebec built by the French.
1610. Henry IV. of France assassinated.
1611. Robert Carr, Viscount Rochester, be-
comes min ster.
The Authorised Version of the Bible
completed.
1613. English factories set up at Surat, in
India.
1615. Lady Arabella Stuart dies.
1616. Francis Beauniont, poet, dies.
Shakespeare dies.
1618. Sir Walter Raleigh executed.
Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, becomes
the King's favourite and minister.
Commencement of the Thirty Years'
War.
1619. Queen Anne, wife of King James, dies.
1620. Seizure of the Palatinate by Spaniards.
1621. Bacon disgraced.
1623. Prince Charles visits Madrid.
1624. War with Spain.
1625. James dies.
How a Stuart became King of England,
'All the blue bonnets are over the Border."
IN the preceding chapters we have read the story of the Tudor
Period— the reigns of Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary,
and Elizabeth. We now come to what is known as the Stuart Period.
Ho iv A STUART BECAME KING OF ENGLAND. 431
The Stuart Period occupies in years. It began in 1603, when
James I. of England came to the throne, and ended in 1714 at the
death of Queen Anne. The first question that naturally comes to
our minds is, " Why are these in years called the Stuart Period?"
In order to get an answer to this question we must carry our minds
back as far as the reign of Henry VII., the first of the Tudors.
We read in the last Part how Margaret Tudor,'55' daughter of
Henry VII. and sister of Henry VIII., married James IV. ,(56' King of
Scotland, in the year 1502. James IV. (who was killed at the battle
of Flodden Field) and Margaret had a son, who became James V.
of Scotland. James V. had a daughter, whose name is very well
known to all who have read the history of England.
This daughter was Mary, Queen of Scots, ((it)) who was beheaded, by
order of Queen Elizabeth, at Fotheringay Castle in the year 1587.
Mary, Queen of Scots was married three times. Her second husband
was Henry Darnley, who was killed by an explosion of gunpowder
at Kirk-o'-fields, Edinburgh. The son of Henry Darnley and Mary,
Queen of Scots was called James, and became King of Scotland
under the title of James VI. Now James VI., King of Scotland,
bore for his family-name the name of Stuart. The sovereigns of
Scotland had belonged to the Stuart family ever since the time of
Robert Stuart (1371).
We have now learnt that James VI. of Scotland was a Stuart,
and that he was descended from Margaret Tudor. We have still to
learn how it was that the name of Stuart came to be as well known
in the history of England as it had been hitherto in the history of
Scotland. If we turn back to the reign of Henry VII. (see p. 284),
we shall find an account of the marriage between Margaret Tudor and
James IV. of Scotland, and we shall read the following passage: —
" When Margaret and James were married, some of Henry VII. 's
friends said to him : ' What will happen if your sons die, or if they
have no children ? Will not the, children of the King and Queen of
Scotland have a right to the throne of England ? ' ' Those who asked
this question did not speak without good reason, for what they
feared might happen did actually take place.
Henry VII. 's son, Henry VIII., came to the throne on the death
of his father, and Henry VIII.'s three children— Edward VI.,*63' Mary/611
and Elizabeth*0-' — all reigned in England, but neither Edward, nor
Mary, nor Elizabeth left any children ; and thus it came about that
on the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603 the next heir to the crown
of England was James Stuart,'70 King of Scotland, great-grandchild of
Margaret Tudor. There was no doubt at all about James being the
432 HISTORY OF ENGLAND,
right heir ; and as soon as Elizabeth was dead, everyone in England
at once looked to James as their new king.
But when he became King of England James did not cease to be
King of Scotland. He was king of the two countries at the same
time, and was known across the Border as James VI., King of Scotland,
and on the English side of the Border as James /., King of England.
It is the story of what took place during the reign of James Stuart,
and of his children and grandchildren, which has now to be told.
There were six sovereigns of the line of Stuart — James L, Charles I.,
Charles II, James II, Mary, and Anne.
DESCENT OF THE CROWN FROM HENRY VII. TO JAMES I.
HENRY VII. (Tudor) = Elizabeth of York.
b. 1456. d. 1503.
d. 1509. I
i. Catharine = HENRY VIII. , = 2. Anne Boleyn = 3. Jane Seymour. Margaret, = James IV.(Stuart)
ofAragon. b. 1491. b. 1489. I of Scotland.
d. 1547. d. 1541. | Killed at Flodden.
MARY, ELIZABETH, EDWARD VI., James V. of Scotland,
b. 1516. b. 1533. b. 1537. d. 1542.
d. 1558. d. 1603. d. 1553.
Henry Darnley = Mary (Stuart), Queen of Scots.
I Executed 1587.
JAMES (Stuart),
Sixth of Scotland and
First of England,
b. 1566.
In reading the history of England up to the present time a great
deal has been said about the kings and the queens, and what they
did and thought. It was right to pay much attention to these things
in the earlier part of our history, because the kings and queens were
often the most powerful and important persons in the country, and
what they did and thought made the greatest possible difference to
those who lived under their rule. In the reigns of Henry VIII. and of
Queen Elizabeth, it is impossible not to turn our attention first of all
to the king or the queen, and to regard him or her as the chief figure
in the story of the time.
Now, however, we have come to a period in our history when
another great power besides that of the Crown began to make itself
felt. This new power was the power of Parliament. The history of the
Stuart Period is a history of the long and fierce struggle which took
place between the king on the one hand, and the Parliament on the
other. The king fought to keep his own power and the right to rule
the country by his own will. The Parliament fought for the right to
prevent the king from governing the country by his own will and against
the will of Parliament. In the end Parliament won the day, and made
THE NEW KING AND His SUBJECTS. 433
it part of the fixed and settled law of the land that the king or queen
has no right to rule this country without the consent of Parliament.
At the present day the Government of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland is what is called a Constitutional Government —
that is to say, a Government in which all things are done in accordance
with the fixed rule and law of the Constitution.1 Some of the laws and
rules of our Constitution were fixed and settled before the Stuart
Period, and some have been fixed and settled since its close, but many
of the most important rules and laws of the British Constitution were
first firmly fixed during this Stuart Period, about which we are now
going to read,
The New King- and His Subjects.
- "Elizabeth died : and the Kingdom passed to one who was, in hid
own opinion, the greatest master of king-craft who ever lived, but
who was, in truth, one of those kings whom God seems to send for the
express purpose of hastening revolutions,"— Macaulay.
James was thirty-six years old, and had been King of Scotland thirty-
five years, when the news reached him that Queen Elizabeth was dead
and that he had become King of England as well as of Scotland. He
was, naturally, very pleased to hear the. news. Scotland was at that
time a poor country, and was still greatly disturbed by the rivalry of
the two parties which had fought against each other so fiercely in
the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots. England under Elizabeth had
become rich and powerful, and there seemed no longer any fear
of civil war among the English. James was therefore glad to exchange
the palace at Holyrood for the greater splendour of Windsor and
St. James's. He came to London in great state, stopping at several
places on the way in order to receive the congratulations of his
new subjects.
Many of the nobles and chief persons came to meet the king upon
his journey, at York, at Newark, and elsewhere. The king, anxious
to seem gracious and to please everybody, gave titles right and left to
those who were presented to him. From the very first he wished
to be thought a gracious king. It is doubtful, however, whether those
who saw James were as much struck by his kingly appearance as
he wished them to be, and as he, no doubt, thought they were. It is
1 Constitution) from the Latin coti&titne>'ei to establish.— a thing "established" or
"constituted."
434
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
said that the king was of ungainly appearance, clumsy in movement,
and not very cleanly in his habits ; but whatever other people may
have thought of the king, the king beyond all doubt thought a great
deal of himself. We shall see that James's good opinion of himself
soon brought him into
trouble.
If we go back a
long way in English
history to the time
af the Plantagenets,
who reigned before the
Tudors, we shall find
that the English kings
in those days — Henry
IV., Henry VI., and
Edward IV. — though
they had a great deal
of power, could not
always do as they
liked. The great
nobles were also very
powerful, and were
able to interfere with
the king and to con-
trol his actions. Some-
times, indeed, they
were as powerful as
the king himself, for
we read of the Earl of
Warwick being called
the " King-Maker" be-
cause it was said that
he had power to make or unmake kings as he chose. Parliament, too,
was not without its share of power in those days. The Commons
of England had always claimed the right to prevent the king from
imposing any taxes upon the country without their consent, and the
House of Commons itself often refused to vote money to the king
until he promised to remedy the grievances of which they complained.
But during the Wars of the Roses most of the great nobles had
been killed in battle, or had lost their lives upon the scaffold ; and
when the first of the Tudor sovereigns, Henry VII, came to the throne
he found no power left in the country strong enough to resist his will.
the inez
JAMES I.
t hit by J. Smith, after Van Dyck.)
THE DOCTRINE OF "DIVINE RIGHT" 435
The great nobles had been killed or had been deprived of their land,
and the House of Commons was not yet strong enough to fight alone
against a powerful king. And thus it came about that during the
reigns of the Tudors the power of the Crown became greater than
it had ever been before in our history ; and the Tudor kings and
qurcns, being very determined and able men and women, knew how
to make the most of the power they had won.
The Doctrine of " Divine Rig-ht."
"/ will haue none of that: I will have one doctrine and one
discipline, one religion in substance and in ceremony."— James I. at the
Hampton Court Conference.
But it was not only the downfall of the nobles which had given
greater power to the Crown. A great change had come over the title by
which the King or Queen of England claimed to rule. A strange doctrine
had been invented, or, rather, had been brought over to England from
other countries in which it had already been preached by kings and by
those who flattered them. It is necessary to remember the name of
this strange doctrine, because it played a very important part in the
history of the Stuart Period. It was called the Doctrine of " Divine
Right," and it declared that kings rule over their subjects as a matter
of right, and that this right is given to them by God.
It is quite plain that this idea was certain to lead to one result.
If it were true that the king reigned, not by the consent of the people,
but by a right which the people could not interfere with, then it was
evident that the king could do anything he liked, and that he was
above all laws which the people or the Parliament, which represented
the people, might make. If the king wanted a thing done in one way,
and the Parliament and the people wanted it done in another, the
king had only to say, " It does not matter to me what your wishes
may be, I am a king by Divine Right, and, what I wish must be
the law." Then, of course, either the king or the Parliament had
to give way.
In the times of the Tudor kings and queens — of Henry VIII. and
Elizabeth — there were often disputes between the Crown and the
Parliament ; but the Crown being strong and Parliament weak, it was
Parliament which had to give way. We shall see that when disputes
of the same kind broke out in the time of 'the Stuarts things were
altered, and it was not long before Parliament and the people declared
436 HrsroKY OF ENGLAND.
that the king had no Divine Right to rule over them, but that he, like
everybody else, must act according to law.
James I., when he came from Scotland, thought that he had only to
step into the shoes of Queen Elizabeth and Henry VIII. in order to
exercise all the power which they had exercised. He was much mis-
taken, but it was some time before he found out his mistake. James
was a great believer in his Divine Right to rule over the people of
England and Scotland ; indeed, he was never so happy as when he
was laying down the law for his subjects.
The first thing that occupied his attention was the difference of
religion which he found existing in England. At that time there
were three great parties in England. There were the friends of
the Protestant Reformed Church as fixed by law, which was called
The Established Church ; there were the Roman Catholics ; and, lastly,
there were those Protestants who thought that the Reformation had
not gone far enough, and who, though they were great enemies to the
Roman Catholics, were also enemies to the Protestant Church as fixed
by law. This party was called the Puritan party, and we have already
read something about it in the story of Queen Elizabeth.
During the last years of Queen Elizabeth's reign the Puritans had
increased in number and in influence. This was not wonderful. When
Queen Elizabeth and her counsellors had settled once for all that the
Protestant religion must take the place of the Roman Catholic in
England, they had not been content to declare that all public services
held in England should be Protestant services, but they had laid down
a great number of rules and regulations declaring exactly what was to
be the form of the services and what the bishops and the clergy were
to teach.
Unfortunately, they went further, and they set to work to persecute
and punish all those, whether they were Roman Catholics or whether
they were Puritans, who did not obey the rules and regulations which
they made. It is easy to see that in doing this they were forsaking the
truth which, as Protestants, they should have been the first to teach —
namely, that a man has a right to worship God after his own conscience,
and that no one has a right to punish him for doing so.
The Puritans believed that the Protestant Church as it had been
set up by Edward VI. and Elizabeth was still too much like the Roman
Catholic Church, and many of them refused to obey the orders of the
bishops and to attend services in the churches. For their disobedience
they had been punished ; and just as the persecution of the Protestants
by Roman Catholics had made the Protestants stronger than they
were before, so the persecution of the Puritans by the Protestant
THE DOCTRINE OF " DIVINE RIGHT.'"
437
Church now led to an increase in the influence and the power of the
Puritans.
It is necessary to understand something about the division between
these three parties at the time when James I. became, king, or otherwise
we should not be able to follow the story of what took place. When
the king came to London everyone was very curious to know with
which of the three parties he would side. There were some who held
that in his heart he
favoured the Roman
Catholics, and would
do his best to strengthen
their cause. There were
others who thought that
he would do all he
could to help the Puri-
tans, and this did not
seem unlikely. The
Protestants in Scotland
mostly belonged to
a party called the
Presbyterian party, and
the Presbyterians were
as a rule more friendly
to the Puritans than to
the other English Pro-
testants.
But James soon
made it quite clear that
he intended to side
neither with the Roman
Catholics nor with the
Puritans, but with the
bishops and with the
Established Church. He declared that, like Henry VIII., he was
the Head of the Church in England ; and he went further, and declared
that no one could lay down the teaching of that Church better
than himself. He took part in the disputes between the different
parties. He wrote books and he preached sermons.
A great meeting, or " Conference," was held at Hampton Court. He
ordered the bishops and the leaders of the Puritans to come to the
Conference and argue before him ; and, when he could not get the
best of the argument in any other way, he interrupted the speaker by
ROBERT CECIL, FIRST EARL OF SALISBURY.
(Front the portrait by Zucckero.)
43$ Hi §TORY Off ENGLAND.
declaring that he was the true and only judge of what was right, and
that those who differed from him would do well to keep silence.
Having made up his mind which party he would favour, the king was
not slow to put in. force the laws against all those who differed from
that party, whether they were Roman Catholics or Protestants. In
consequence, he made enemies on both sides, and we shall see that
both sides tried to punish him, though in different ways.
The Beginning- of Troubles.
" For freedom's battle once begun,
Bequeathed by bleeding sire to son,
Though baffled oft, is ever won."— Byron.
At the very beginning of the reign plots were formed against the
king and against his Council, at the head of which was Robert Cecil,
son of Elizabeth's famous minister Lord Burleigh. These plots were
known as the Main Plot and the Bye Plot. The chief conspirator was
Lord Cobham, and Sir Walter Raleigh was said to be mixed up in the
latter plot. It was proved that the conspirators had tried to get the
help of Spain to further their objects. Raleigh was found guilty and
imprisoned in the Tower, where he remained for many years. The
little cell in which he spent so long a time may still be seen in the
White Tower, which forms the great central building of the Tower of
London.
The discovery of the conspiracy strengthened the position of King
James upon the throne, and his support of the bishops and of the
Established Church gained him the support and good will of by far
the greater number of the Protestants of England. It was not long,
however, before he found himself in trouble. He had declared himself
to be a King by Divine Right and Head of the Church in England ; he
now went further, and thought that he would prove to all the world
that not only was he above the law, but that he had a right to do that
which was contrary to the law.
In the year 1604 Parliament was called together. The electors of
Buckinghamshire elected as their member Sir Francis Goodwin. The
king disapproved of the election of Goodwin, and declared that he
had been wrongly elected. He sent down orders to the county, and
caused another member — namely, Sir John Fortescue — to be elected
instead. Here, then, were two members elected to the House of
Commons for the same seat. The question was, which should be
THE BEGINNING OF TROUBLE*. .139
allowed to sit for the county of Buckingham, the king's man or
the Commons' man ?
The quarrel does not seem very important now, but it should be
remembered, because it was the first skirmish in the great battle which
was fought in the Stuart times between king and Parliament, and
which ended at last in the triumph of Parliament. This first skirmish
was a drawn battle. The Commons refused to let Sir John Fortescue
take his seat. The king commanded the Commons to admit him.
The Commons stuck to their refusal. The king commanded the
Commons to confer with the House of Lords. The Commons replied
that the matter was their business, and did not concern the House of
Lords. The king got angry, and told the Commons that they held all
their rights by his royal favour alone. The Commons respectfully
replied that this was a mistake, and that the power of making laws
lay in the High Court of Parliament, and that they could be made
only by the agreement of the Commons, the accord of the Lords, and the
assent of the Sovereign.
At last, after the quarrel had lasted a long time, it was put an enck
to by a proposal made by the king that neither Sir Francis Goodwin
nor Sir John Fortescue should be member, but that there should be
another election. Ever since this time the House of Commons has
had the right to settle disputes arising out of the election of its own
members.1
This first quarrel with Parliament having come to an end, a still
more serious danger threatened the country. This time it was
Parliament itself which was in danger. James and the Church party
had made up their minds that both Roman Catholics and Puritans
should be punished if they refused to obey the law and to acknowledge
the king's title as Head of the Church, and his power, with the consent
of Parliament, to fix the form in which services should be held. All
those who refused to obey, whether they were Roman Catholics or
Puritans, were punished and were persecuted with almost as much
bitterness as the Protestants had been in former days by the Roman
Catholics.
1 The right to try petitions was delegated by the Home of Commons in 1868 to the judges,
and all election petitions are now tried by two judges.
440 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The Pilgrim Fathers.
"Down to the Plymouth rock, that had been to their feet as a doorstep
Into a world unknown —the corner-stone of a nation I
******
0 strong hearts and true! Not one went back in the 'Mayflower'!
No, not one looked back, who had set his hand to this ploughing I "
Longfellow : " The Sailing of the 'Mayflower.' "
Some of the Puritans decided to leave England for ever, and to sail
away to the New World across the Atlantic, where they thought
that they would be safe from persecution. Some of them crossed
the Channel, and went to live in Holland ; but in Holland they
were among foreigners, and though they could not ariy longer live in
England, they longed to be in a land where English law was known
and where the English tongue was spoken. They determined at
last to find such a land for themselves.
In 1620, sixteen years after the Hampton Court Conference, a party
of English Puritans — men, women, and children, to the number of 100
— sailed from Boston, in Lincolnshire, for North America. The ship
they sailed in was called the Mayflower. They stopped on their voyage
at Plymouth, and Plymouth was the last English town which they saw.
After a long voyage their little vessel sighted land on the American
coast in what is now the State of Massachusetts.
They came to shore, and made a little settlement in the new and
strange country. Like good Englishmen, they called their new town
after the one they had left in the old country they loved, in spite of the
unkindness of its rulers. The town has grown, but it still bears the
name which its founders gave it — " Plymouth." The stone on which
the sea- worn travellers first set foot in America is still shown with pride
by their descendants,'the citizens of the State of Massachusetts in the
great Republic of the United States. It is called to this day " The
Pilgrims' Stone," after those who had made this long pilgrimage in
search of freedom.
Those citizens of the United States who can claim to be descended
from the Pilgrim Fathers, who landed from the Mayflower at Plymouth,
in Massachusetts, in the year 1620, are proud of their forefathers.
And, indeed, they have reason to be, for the descendants of the
Puritans who left England to escape persecution during the days of the
Stuarts grew and multiplied in the new land, and to this day form the
THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 441
best and strongest part of the population of that part of the United
States in which they settled, and which they called by the name which
they have kept to this day — " The New England States." The New
England States are Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and
Connecticut.
Many of the Puritans remained behind, and cherished their anger
against the king, in the first place because he had persecuted them
and their friends, and in the second place because they thought that
he was in his heart friendly to the Roman Catholics. The Puritan
party grew stronger and stronger, for at that time by far the greater
number of people in England were Protestants, and even those who
did not agree with the Puritans in all things were friendly to them
on account of their religion. The Roman Catholics were no less
angry with the king, who persecuted them, than were the Protestants ;
and as their party was not very strong in England, but was very
strong in Spain and in other foreign countries, they were accustomed
to look abroad for help in their struggle against the king.
The Gunpowder Plot.
"Please to remember the Fifth of November —
Gunpowder, Treason, and Plot."
In the year 1604 a Roman Catholic gentleman of the name of Catesby
formed a plot by which he hoped to put an end once for all to the
persecution of his friends, and to punish the king and Parliament.
Together with a soldier of the name of Guy Fawkes, a Yorkshireman, he
became the author of the famous "Gunpowder Plot." An empty cellar
near to the House of Lords was taken by the conspirators, and a
tunnel through the ground was begun, which it was hoped they would
be able to- get directly under the Houses of Parliament.
By what seemed to the conspirators a stroke of good fortune, the
tunnel became unnecessary, for they were soon able to hire another
cellar which lay exactly under the House of Lords. In this cellar
Catesby and Fawkes collected a number of barrels of gunpowder, their
object being, when the proper time came, to blow up the Houses of
Parliament, and thus to get rid of their enemies. The plot very nearly
succeeded, but, happily, those who had first started it were not content
to keep the secret among a few persons only. It was their intention
after the explosion to kill or to carry off the members of the Royal
442 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Family, and some of them hoped to make Arabella Stuart, (76) a relative
of James, queen.
But in order to do all these things money was required, and Fawkes
and Catesby had therefore to tell their story to several rich Roman
Catholics whom they thought they could trust, and from whom they
expected to receive help. Among these rich Roman Catholics were
Sir Everard Digby and Sir Thomas Tresham. Now, it is not very hard for
one person to keep a secret if he has a great interest in doing so. It is
not so easy for two people to keep a secret ; but when the secret
becomes known to a score of different people, then it is almost certain
that before long it will cease to be a secret at all.
And so it was in this case. Several of the conspirators had friends
in Parliament, and though each of them was quite willing that other
people's friends should be blown up, they were anxious that their own
particular friends should escape. Sir Thomas Tresham had a friend
in the House of Lords, named Lord Monteagle, who had married his
sister. We can imagine what must have been the astonishment of
Lord Monteagle and his family, as they were sitting at supper on the
26th of October, 1605, when a strange man came suddenly into the
room, handed a letter to the page-boy, and disappeared. Still greater
was the astonishment when the letter was read out aloud to those
assembled. This is what was in it : —
" My lord, out of the love I bear to some of your friends, I have a care
of your preservation, therefore I would advise you, as you tender your life, to
devise some excuse to shift your attendance at this Parliament, for God and
man hath concurred to punish the wickedness of this time ; and think not
slightly of this advertisement, but retire to yourself into your country, where
you may expect the event in safety ; for though there be no appearance
of any stir, yet I say they shall receive a terrible blow this Parliament, and
yet they shall not see who hurts them. This counsel is not to be contemned,
because it may do you good, and can do you no harm, for the danger is passed
as soon as you have burnt the letter, and I hope God will give you the grace
to make good use of it, to whose holy protection I commend you"
This was quite enough to arouse suspicion, and suspicion once
aroused, it was a short step towards making a thorough search in the
Houses of Parliament. Cecil, James's chief minister, to whom the news
was brought, acted wisely. Parliament was to meet on the 5th of
November. He let the plot go on, and up to the last moment the
plotters believed that they had kept their secret. A little after mid-
night Sir Thomas Knevett, a magistrate of Westminster, and a party
THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 443
of soldiers, entered the cellar, where Guy Fawkes stood with a dark
lantern in his hand ready to light the match which was to explode the
gunpowder. He struggled fiercely, but was overpowered and made a
prisoner. He was taken to the Tower and put to the torture, in the
hope of making him tell the names of his accomplices ; but he
bravely refused to confess. He was executed February ist, 1606.
His bravery, however, did not save his companions. One by one
THE ARREST OF GUY FAWKES.
they were discovered and the plot laid bare. Catesby tried to raise a
revolt among the Roman Catholics in Worcestershire, and was killed
fighting desperately. Sir Everard Digby and several others were taken
and executed. It was not wonderful that the people of England should
have been shocked and alarmed when they heard the news of the
Gunpowder Plot ; nor, indeed, was it wonderful that they should have
been exceedingly angry with the Roman Catholics, in whose supposed
interest the plot had been formed.
The whole of the Protestants, indeed, were furious, and thousands
of Roman Catholics suffered who had nothing whatever to do with the
plot, and who were as indignant with the conspirators as any Protestant
444 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
in the land. For a time, however, the passionate anger of the people
would hear no reason, and the laws against the Roman Catholics were
made stricter, and were carried out even more harshly, than they had
hitherto been.
James Quarrels with the House of Commons.
''Grievances and supply must go hand in hand."
Sit- Thomas Wentworth.
But James was no sooner free from one trouble than he fell into
another. He had already quarrelled once with Parliament over tha
election of Sir Francis Goodwin, and now he quarrelled with it again
about a much more serious matter. We have seen that James believed
that he was a king " by Divine Right," that he was above the law,
and that he himself had power to make laws. It was this last claim
that brought him into conflict with Parliament. The king had been
extravagant in his expenditure ; he was constantly in want of money.
He tried to get money in many ways, and among others by selling
titles of rank to those who cared to buy them. Not a very honourable
way of earning a title !
When he had come to the end of all other means, James made
up his mind to impose taxes upon the people without consulting
Parliament. He declared that he had the right to do this by his
"Prerogative" It was allowed by all, that by the Constitution of
England certain powers belonged to the king, and could be used by
him without asking Parliament. Among such powers were those of
declaring war and making treaties with other nations. James now said
that his " prerogative "also gave him the right to increase the Customs
duties and to levy taxes. When, however, he came to try to carry out
his intentions, he was met by the House of Commons with a very firm
resistance. The Commons told him plainly that in trying to raise
money without asking Parliament he was breaking the law as laid
down in the Charters, and as declared over and over again in the laws
and statutes of England.
The struggle between the king and Parliament lasted during the
whole reign, but the House of Commons remained firm, and in the end
the king was obliged to obey the law and to ask Parliament to vote
the money. Parliament was not unwilling to vote the money, but
every time it did so it took care first of all to draw up a list of
grievances and to get a promise from the king that he would remedy
them if the money were given.
JAMES QUARRELS WITH THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 445
During the first half of his reign James had the great advantage of
having Cecil for his chief minister. He was a very able man, and had
power enough over the king to prevent his making great mistakes. In
1612, however — nine years after the accession of the king — Cecil died,
and from that time forward the king's ministers were unworthy men
who sought only their own interests, and who cared little for the
welfare of the country. The two best-known of these ministers were
Robert Carr and George
Villiers. Robert Carr was a
Scotsman,. who was a great
favourite with the king,
who made him in turn
Viscount Rochester and Earl
of Somerset. After the down-
fall of Rochester, Villiers
took his place in the affec-
tions of the king, and
became an especial favourite
with the king's son, Charles.
We shall hear more of
Villiers in the next reign.
It would be impossible
to speak about the ministers
of King James without say-
ing something about a very
distinguished man who
served the king in the
office of Lord Chancellor,
and who ended his life
during this reign in shame
and disgrace. This was
the famous Francis Bacon,
about whom we read in the time of Queen Elizabeth. His name
is known to all the world as the writer of " Bacon's Essays."
He was, perhaps, the cleverest Englishman of his time. He had
been appointed Lord Chancellor, and had been given the title of
Viscount St. Albans. In the quarrel between the king and Parliament,
Bacon was one of the king's ministers against whom the House of
Commons brought the most serious charges. They declared that he
had over and over again been guilty of taking bribes, which were
offered to him on condition that he would give unjust judgments.
The charges were true, and were proved beyond all doubt, The
FRANCIS BACON, LORD VERULAM.
(Front the portrait by Van Soirter.}
446 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Chancellor was forced to admit that he was guilty. He was impeached
by the House of Commons before the House of Lords. The unhappy
man confessed his crime, and threw himself upon the king's mercy.
He was sentenced to be imprisoned for life in the Tower, to be dis-
missed from all his offices, and to pay a fine of £40,000. The king
consented to release him from prison, and the fallen Chancellor lived
on for a few years at his house near St. Albans. He died in 1626.
The Ancestors of King Edward VII.
Let
The true succeeders of each royal house,
By God's fair ordinance conjoin together!
And let their heirs (God, if Thy will be so)
Enrich the time to come with smooth-faced peace,
With smiling plenty, and fair prosperous days ! "
Richard III., Act V., Scene 4.
The mention of Prince Charles's name on the preceding page may
remind us that hitherto nothing has been said about King James's
family ; but some of the members of this family played so important a
part in our history that they must not be passed over. James himself
had married Anne, daughter of the King of Denmark.
He had three children— Henry,'79" Charles,<7i)> and Elizabeth. 81> Henry,
Prince of Wales, did not live to take any great part in our history.
Perhaps it would have been a good thing had he done so, for all
writers of his time agree in describing him as a young man of great
promise, handsome in figure, courageous, anxious to do good, and
b jloved of the people. Unluckily, this good prince died of a fever in
the year 1612 in the nineteenth year of his age.
His brother Charles was a very different character. We need not
stop to describe him here, for we shall read more about him, his follies,
and his fortunes, when he had become Charles I., King of England. We
must note, however, that during his father's lifetime a marriage was
arranged between him and the Infanta, daughter of the King of Spain.
Charles, accompanied by Villiers, went to Madrid to pay his court to
the lady ; but the match was broken off — thanks, some people said, to
the misbehaviour of Villiers while he was at the Spanish capital. The
failure of the match gave great satisfaction in England, where the
Protestants looked with horror upon the idea of a marriage between the
Prince of Wales and a Spanish princess. It was then arranged that
Charles should marry Princess Henrietta Maria. s"' But this marriage,
THE ANCESTORS OF KING EDWARD VII.
447
which was not so unpopular as that which had first been proposed,
was not solemnised until after the death of King James.
The name of Princess Elizabeth does not occur very often in the
history of England, but there are strong reasons why it should not be
forgotten. Elizabeth was married when she was quite a child to
Frederick V./*2) the Elector Palatine,1 one of the Protestant princes of
Germany. At the time of the marriage the bride was seventeen and
the bridegroom the
same age. The life
of Frederick and
Elizabeth was a
chapter of misfor-
tunes.
In the year 1618
a fierce war between
Protestants and
Roman Catholics,
known as the Thirty
Years' War, broke out.
Frederick took the
side of the Protestants,
and was chosen King
of Bohemia by the
Protestant princes.
But, so far from
reigning over his new
kingdom, he was
driven out of his own
dominions by the
enemy. All his life SIR WALTER RALEIGH.
long he fought for a {Front the fortia.it by Zncchero.)
crown which he never
possessed except in name. Men spoke of him as the " Snow King"
so quickly did all his claims to royalty melt away.
But though Frederick and Elizabeth never reigned as king and
queen themselves, they became the ancestors of one of the greatest
sovereigns of the world ; for it is from Frederick, the " Snow King "
and Elizabeth, the daughter of James I., that King Edward VII. is
1 The Palatinate was the district which lies on the west side of the river Rhine, between the
towns of Mannheim and Karlsruhe. The Elector Palatine, or Prince of the Palatinate, was one
of the piinces of Germany who at that time elected the emperor. There were first seven and
afterwards nine electors.
448 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
descended. On the following page is a table which will show us how
this has come about.
In telling the story of the year 1618 we must not omit to mention
one sad event by which it was marked. This was the death of the
gallant, but unfortunate, Sir Walter Raleigh. Fifteen years before, he
had, as we have already seen, been accused of taking part in Lord
Cobham's conspiracy. He had been imprisoned in the Tower, and
had there passed the weary years, shut off from all the world, in a little
cell within the thick walls of the White Tower. While in prison he
had made use of his time to write his famous book entitled " The
History of the World." In 1617 he was released, and was sent off in
command of an expedition to Guiana, in South America. It was hoped
that he would discover the fabled " Golden City," or El Dorado, of
which many travellers' tales had been told, and which was believed
to lie to the south of the great river Orinoco.
But the expedition was a failure. The Golden City remained un-
discovered, and, what was worse, Raleigh managed to come to blows
with the Spaniards, who had already established themselves in South
America. England was at that time supposed to be at peace with
Spain, and the king especially did not wish to offend the Spaniards.
The opportunity was too good a one to be lost by Raleigh's enemies.
He was accused of making war upon the king's " dear brother," the
King of Spain. He was tried, and though he was not punishable with
death for any offence he had committed since his release from the
Tower, his old sentence, which had been pronounced upon him fifteen
years before, was revived against him, and under that sentence he
was condemned to death, and executed on the 2gth of October, 1618.
The Translation of the Bible.
" The English version of the Bible remains the noblest example of the
English tongue. Its perpetual use made it, from the instant of its appear-
ance, the standard of our language." — J. K. Green: "History of the English
People."
We have not yet said much about the reign of James I. that is very
creditable to the king, or that is very pleasant to look back upon.
There were, however, three things which were done during the reign
and under the direction of the king which were of great importance in
themselves, and which have had the most fortunate consequences for
449
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45° HISTORY OF EXGLAXD.
our country. It we turn to the beginning of our Bible we shall find in
tii 3 Preface the following inscription : — •
"TO THE MOST HIGH AND MIGHTY PRINCE
JAMES,
BY THE GRACE OF GOD
KING OF GREAT BRITAIN, FRANCE,! AND IRELAND,
DEFENDER OF THE FAITH, &c.,
The Translators of the Bible wish Grace, Mercy, and Peace,
through JESUS CHRIST our Lord."
What is the history of this inscription ? After the Conference at
Hampton Court, which has been already mentioned, the king gave
orders that a translation of the Bible should be made which should
become from that time forward the only translation allowed by law to
be used in the churches. The translation was made by forty-seven
learned men. The Bible as translated in the time of James I. is the
one which is read to this day by nearly everybody who reads the Bible
in the English language.
We have reason to be thankful that the Bible was translated just at
this time. The scholars who did the work did not perhaps know quite
as much Hebrew as some students do now, and there
are some passages which might have been more cor-
rectly translated if the translators had been more
skilful than they were. It is for this reason that in
our own day a new version or edition of the Bible
has been printed which is called the Revised Version,
and in which the small errors made by the trans-
ARMS OF THE lators of King James's time have been corrected. But
UNIVERSITY OF ?.»'., r
OXFORD. those who did the work of correction took pains to
make as little alteration as possible in the actual
words, and in this they acted rightly. In the first place, after nearly
three hundred years of daily use by Englishmen of all classes and of
all lands, the actual words of King James's Bible have become so
familiar to all who speak English that it would have seemed to many
millions of people to be losing an old friend if they lost the familiar
words of their Bible.
In the second place, it would have been a great mistake to make
more alterations than were actually needed, because it would have
been scarcely possible to make the language more beautiful than it
1 The Kings of England ut this time btill called themselves Kings of France.
THE UNION WITH SCOTLAND. 451
is in the Old Version. The time of James I. was the time of Sliakespoare,
and it was just before the time of Milton. It was an age when people
v/rote very simple and yet very clear and beautiful English. One of
the best and simplest writers of English that ever lived — namely, John
Bunyan, the author of the Pilgrim's Progress— was born in the year
1628 ; and among those who made the translation of the Bible in
James's time were men who had the same power that Bunyan had
of writing noble and simple English.
The Union with Scotland, and the Plantation of Ulster.
"All your strength is in your union,
All your danger is in discord."
Longfellow : ' ' Hiawatha."
"It is the sin fullest Thing in the world, to forsake or destitute a Planta-
tion, once in Forw ardnesse : For besides the Dishonour, it is the Guiltinesse
of Bloud, of many Gommiserable Persons." — Bacon's Essays: No. 33, "Of
Plantations," p. 143.
A second event took place in the reign of James I. which deserves to
be remembered because of the good results which in the end it led to.
This was the union between the crowns of England and Scotland. We
have already seen how it was that the King of Scotland succeeded as
a matter of right to the throne of England. This was the first step
towards bringing about that real Union between England and Scotland
which exists at the present day, and which is so great a strength to our
country. England and Scotland now form parts of a truly " United
Kingdom," united at home and united abroad, having one sovereign,
one parliament, one army, one navy, and respected throughout the
world as parts of one great and united country.
It must not be supposed, however, that the union of the two crowns
which followed when James became King of England as well as King
of Scotland put an end at once to the jealousy and envy which had so
long existed between the two countries. On the contrary, we shall see
that battles were still fought between English and Scottish armies, and
that there were fierce conflicts between the people of the two countries.
For many years to come Scotland had a Parliament of its own,
separate from that of England. The Scottish army was quite
independent of the English army ; duties were levied upon goods
crossing the Border from England into Scotland or from Scotland into
452
PI I STORY OF E ACL AND.
England ; Scotsmen were still regarded as foreigners in England, and
Englishmen were looked upon in the same light in Scotland.
But the first step towards a real union had been taken, and from
that time forward the healing-up of the old enmities between the two
countries went on. The Scots became content with the new state of
things, for they felt that they had lost neither in honour nor strength.
They had given a king to England, instead of England forcing a king
upon them, and what war
would never have accom-
plished was at length brought
about by the good will and
good sense of the two peoples.
The third thing which was
done in the reign of James I.,
and to which it is possible
to look back with pleasure
and satisfaction, was the
settlement of the north of
Ireland by a number of
Englishmen and Scotsmen
who were sent over by order
of the king to occupy and
cultivate the lands which had
become vacant in the Province
of Ulster. During the con-
stant fighting and the many
insurrections which had taken
place in Ireland, many of the
Irish had been driven from
their lands, or had left them
to seek their fortunes in some other country.
James believed that peace might be secured, and that the Protestant
cause might be strengthened, if he could succeed in raising up a loyal
and Protestant population in the north of Ireland, and it was with this
object that the new " Colonists " were sent over. This " planting " of
English and Scottish families in Ireland is usually spoken of as the
" Plantation of Ulster.'" The descendants of the colonists grew and
prospered in their new home; and the Protestants of Ulster have
always been among the most thriving, industrious, and successful of
the inhabitants of Ireland.
We shall learn in a later chapter how in the reign of William III*
the Ulster Protestants saved Ireland for the United Kingdom at ft
SHOWING THK PROVINCE
OF ULSTER.
tiow THE KING ANGERED THE PARLIAMENT.
453
time when a foreign army had become master of a greater part
of the island, and how the gallant defence of Londonderry turned the
tide of battle in favour of the Protestant cause. At this day not only
are the Protestants of Ulster among the most loyal, industrious, and
energetic of the inhabitants of the United Kingdom, but it is hardly
possible to find any part, of the world in which Ulster men have not
made their mark by their industry and their energy.
And now -we have come to the end of the reign of James I.
On the i3th of March, 1625, James was taken ill on his return from
hunting. He died on the 2yth of March, in the fifty-ninth year of
his age and the twenty-third year of his reign.
CHAPTER LIT.
CHARLES I.--HOW THE KING ANGERED THE PARLIAMENT.
1625-1630.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES
Charles I., King of Great Britain, second
son of James I. and Anne of Denmark,
b. 1600, became King 1625, executed
1649.
Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV.
of France, wife of Charles I., b. 1609,
m. 1625.
Charles, eldest son of Charles I., b. -1630,
afterwards King of England.
Mary, daughter of Charles I., b. 1631. -
James, second son of Charles I., b. 1633,
afterwards King of England.
Elizabeth, daughter of Charles I., b. 1635,
d. 1650.
Henry, youngest son of Charles I., Duke
of Gloucester, b. 1640.
Henrietta, daughter of Charles I., b. 1644.
LOUIS XIII., King of France, d. 1643.
LOUIS XIV., King of France.
Philip IV., King of Spain.
Ferdinand II., Emperor, d. 1637.
Ferdinand III., Emperor.
William. Prince of Orange, hustand of
Princess Mary.
Urban VIII. , Pope, d. 16^4.
Innocent X., Pope.
George Vllliers, Duke of Buckingham,
Charles'* favourite, murdered 16-^8.
William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury,
executed 1645.
Sir Nicholas Hyde, Chief Justice, d. 16-1.
Sir Thomas WentWOrth, afterwards Earl
of Strafford, executed 1641.
William Lenthall, Speaker of the Lonfc
Parliament.
Oliver Cromwell, afterwards Lord Protect r.
John Hampden, d. 1643.
William Prynne.
Alexander Leslie, Earl of Leven, leader of
the Covenanters.
Earl Of Montrose, leader of the King's
Army in Scotland.
General George Monk.
Ferdinand, Lord Fairfax, d. 1647.
Thomas, Lord Fairfax.
Prince Kupert, nephew of Charles I.
Cardinal Richelieu, ch:ef minister of
Louis XIII., d. 1642.
Cardinal Mazarin, chief minister of
France.
Great Writers :—
John Milton.
Ben Jonson, d. 1637.
Great Painters :—
Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish, d.
1640
Van Dyck, Flemish, d. 1641.
GuidO, North Italian, d. 1642.
Rembrandt, Dutch.
Sir Peter Lely, Germm.
454
ft "is 'TORY OF ENGLAND.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF CHARLES I.
1625. Accession of Charles I. j 1640.
Charles marries Henrietta Maria, j 1641.
daughter of Henry IV. of France.
First Parliament of Charles summoned j
1626.
1627.
1628.
and dissolved.
Impeachment of Buckingham.
Second Parliament of Charles I. sum-
moned and dissolved.
Attempts to levy Ship-money.
The city of Boston, U.S.A., built by
Knglish emigrants.
Third Parliament of Charles I. sum-
1642.
1643.
moned.
Puckingham murdered by Felton.
Petition of Right agreed to by Charles. 1644.
1^29. Parliament passes the " Remonstrance."
Third Par.iament of Charles I. dis- ;
solved. •
Holies and other members imprisoned. ' 1645.
1630. Charles, Prince of Wales, afterwards I 1646.
Criarles II., born. j 1647.
Strafford made chief minister.
1632. Gustavus Adolphus killed at the battle |
of Liitzen.
1633. Pnnce James, afterwards James II., 1648.
rorr.
Laud made Archbishop of Canterbury.
1634. Prynne put in the pillory.
1636. John Hampdan resists payment of
}• hip-money.
1638. The Judges decide against Hampden.
1640. The fourth Parliament of Charles dis- I
solved.
The Scots enter England. 1649.
Meeting of the Long Parliament i
(No,. 3).
Impeachment of Strafford and Laud.
Act for Triennial Parliaments passed.
Star-Chamber abolished.
Execution of Strafford.
Charles attempts to arrest the five
members.
Commencement of Civil War. Battle
of Edgehill.
Royalists' successes in the West of
England,
Lcuis XIV., at the age of five, becomes
King of France, Anne of Austria
Regent, and Cardinal Mazarin chief
minister.
Charles summons a Royalist Parlia-
ment at Oxford.
Battle of Marston Moor.
The "Self-Denying Ordinance."
Battle of Naseby.
Charles surrenders to the Scots.
Charles, given up by the fccots, is im-
prisoned, and escapes.
Imprisoned a second time at Caris-
brooke.
The Scottish Parliament raises an army
for the king.
Cromwell defeats the Royalists at
Preston.
Charles removed to Hurst Castle.
Colonel Pride "purges the House of
Commons."
The Peace of Westphalia ends the
Thirty Years' War.
Commissioners appointed to try the
king.
Charles I. executed.
Cavaliers and Roundheads.
"For God, for the Cause, for the Church, for the Laws,
For Charles, King of England, and Prince Rupert of the Rhine."
Macaulay : "Naseby."
WE are now going to read the story of Charles 1, 79) one of the most
unfortunate, though not one of the worst, of our kings. The story of
his reign niay be divided into three parts. The first part contains an
account of the long list of faults and errors which the king committed,
and of the struggle which he made to set up the kingly power above
that of the Parliament and the people. The second part tells how
the king, angry at being opposed, tried to reign, without Parliament,
as an absolute sovereign. The third part tells how Parliament and
people, unable any longer to endure the conduct of the king, rose
against him in s»rms, fought for their liberties, and at last inflicted upon
LIBERTY AND LAW.
455
their sovereign the punishment of death for the crimes which they
declared he had committed against the country.
It would be quite impossible to understand the last part of this
story unless we had already made ourselves familiar with the first part.
The people of England had never learned to hate their kings. At the
beginning of King
Charles's reign it
would never have
crossed the mind
of any Englishman
that England could
be governed in any
other way than by
a king. Even at
the very height of
the Civil War which
took place in this
reign, by far the
greater number of
those who fought
against the king
had no wish to
change the form of
government in Eng-
land, or to get rid
of kings altogether.
It is well to re-
member these
things, because they
prove to us how
many and great
must have been
the faults which
Charles committed
to have driven the English people into open war against him. We
shall see that these faults were both many and great, and that they
were of a kind which Englishmen found it very difficult to forgive or to
overlook. It has always been the boast of Englishmen that they love
liberty, and that they respect the lav'. King Charles was unwise enough
to make a fierce attack upon the liberties of Englishmen, and to break
the laws which had been passed for the protection of those liberties.
He learnt, however, that no man in England, not even if he be a ki:ig,
HENRIETTA MARIA
456
ff i STORY OF ENGLAND.
has the right to breaK the law ; and that if he does break the law he
will be punished for doing so.
When Charles became King of England and Scotland, on the death
of his father in the year 1625, he was in his twenty-fifth year. He was
a handsome and spirited young man, gilted with many good qualities,
and popular with his subjects. He had scarcely succeeded to the
throne when he de-
cided to complete the
arrangements which
had already been set
on foot during his
father's lifetime for his
marriage with the
Princess Henrietta
Maria, sister of Louis
XIII., King of France.
The marriage was
not very popular in
England, for the
Princess was a Roman
Catholic, and the peo-
ple would have pre-
ferred a Protestant
queen ; but a French
marriage was thought
very much better than
the Spanish marriage
which had first been
talked of. The new
queen was a mere
child when she was
married. She was
only fifteen when she
left France. She was
welcomed by Charles with sincere pleasure, for she was young,
pretty, and attractive, and she was a good wife to Charles during
the whole of his troubled life.
We see here a picture of Charles, painted by the famous Dutch
artist, Van Dyck, in a later period of the king's reign than that of which
we are now speaking. The portrait gives us some idea of the gay
costumes which were fashionable at the Court of the Stuarts. The
king and his courtiers, indeed, followed the examples set by the nobles
CHARLES I.
(From the -Mezzotint ofj. Smith, after Van Dyck.)
CAI'ALII-.RS AXD ROUXHHKADS. 457
of France, and decked themselves in gorgeous dresses of velvet and
satin ; their curled locks were allowed to grow down to their shoulders,
and the beautiful lace worn by these gaily-clad gentlemen would stir
the envy of any lady in the present day. With gay dresses went gay
manners and a love of enjoyment which could often only be gratified
by great extravagance.
There had been times in English history before the reign of Charles
when costumes had been very rich, and when the extravagance of the
Court had been very marked, but they were never so rich and so
marked as they now became ; but while there was one set of people
who followed the fashion of gaiety and expense, there was growing up
at the same time another set of people— namely, the Puritans — who
not only did not care for fine dresses and lively amusements, but who
actually thought it wrong to dress in any but the most sober manner,
and who condemned amusements as a sinful waste of time. Thus it
came about that not only were there two parties differing in their
opinions, but that those who held these different opinions led very
different kinds of lives, and could often be distinguished from each
other by their dress and appearance.
We hear much during this reign of the Cavaliers on the one side,
and of the Roundheads on the other. The Roundheads, or Puritans —
with their straight, cropped hair, their sombre dress, and their strict
rules of life — were never tired of finding fault with the folly, the
extravagance, and the careless lives of the Cavaliers. The Cavaliers, on
the other hand, with their long curled hair, their slashed satin jackets,
their fine laces and their feathers, despised the Roundheads for their
common looks and their dull lives, and declared that not only
were they unable to enjoy life themselves, but that they were also
determined to prevent anyone else from enjoying it either.
But it must not be supposed for a moment that the whole of the
English people were either extravagant Cavaliers or sour-looking
Puritans. Then, as now, by far the greater number of people were
quiet, honest men and women who were quite content to enjoy life in
their own way, and to let other people do the same. For the most
part they would have been glad to keep out of quarrels ; and it was
not until they believed their liberties, their rights, and their properties
were really threatened, that they at last consented to take part on
one side or the other.
458 HISTORY OF ENGLAND*
The Quarrel Grows,
"So much for Buckingham!" — "Richard III."
At the time when Charles came to the throne all Europe was in
arms, and Protestants and Roman Catholics were engaged in a fierce
war. Charles hardly knew which side to take. The queen was a Roman
Catholic, and Charles himself was very anxious to be a good friend to
the King of France. On the other hand, the whole feeling of the
people of -England was in favour of the Protestant cause. Undoubtedly,
if Charles had been able to please himself, he would have done nothing
to help the Protestants, and he and the Duke of Buckingham, his
minister, would have taken sides with the King of France.
But the king was in want of money, and to get money he must go
to Parliament. In the year 1625, therefore, Parliament was called
together, and the House of Commons were asked to vote the money
the king required. They were asked for a million pounds, but they
knew very well if they once gave all that was asked of them, they
would have lost all power over the king for a long time to come, and
would have no chance of getting their grievances redressed. They
therefore refused to vote more than £150,000, and they took another
step which greatly displeased the king.
It had been the custom, when a king or queen came to the throne,
to vote to the new sovereign a grant of " Tunnage and Poundage," to
which he or she was entitled for their whole lives. " Tunnage and
poundage " were taxes levied upon every tun of beer or wine, and upon
every pound of merchandise, which was imported into the country.
Such payments are now called Customs Duties. When once the vote
had been passed, the king was always sure of having a considerable
sum of money every year without going to the House of Commons to
get it ; but in the first Parliament of King Charles the House of
Commons refused to do what had been done by their predecessors.
They declared that they would vote "tunnage and poundage" to the
king, but that they would vote it for one year only, and not for the
king's life. The king was furious ; and, rather than take the money
on such conditions, he refused it altogether.
Meanwhile an incident had taken place which showed that the
House of Commons had good reasons for mistrusting the king.
Louis XIII., King of France, was at this time engaged in a civil
war with his Protestant subjects, nnd his army had laid siege to
THE QUARREL GROWS.
459
the strong town of La Rochelle, in the west of France, in which the
Protestants — or " Huguenots," as they were called— had taken refuge.
Louis' chief minister was a very great and famous man named
Richelieu. Richelieu tried to persuade Charles to help him and King
Louis against the Huguenots. But Charles did not dare to do this
openly, for at that very time his English subjects were most anxious
that he should send an expedition to help the Huguenots against
Louis. A fleet of eight
English ships had been
collected in the Channel.
It was hoped that it
would be sent to relieve
the garrison of La
Rochelle.
The ships actually
started, and had got as
far as the French coast
when Admiral Pennington,
who was in command,
received orders from the
king to take on board
French soldiers and
sailors, and actually to
sail away to La Rochelle
to fight not for the
Huguenots but against
them. But the king
had reckoned without
his host, for the captains
and crews refused to
obey the orders, and
Pennington had to sail
back to England. The fleet was once more ordered to sail to Dieppe,
and this time Pennington succeeded in handing over the ships to the
French, but the sailors, having been compelled by force to go as far as
La Rochelle, deserted, and many of them went over to the enemy.
This strange story will show us how great was the difference
between king and people, and how little reason Parliament had to
trust in the wisdom or honour of the king. Naturally, when a dispute
next arose between Charles and the House the feeling on either side
was more bitter than it had ever been before. Nor was it long before
a new conflict arose. As on the former occasion, it was brought about
GEORGE VILLIERS, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.
(After the portrait by Van Dyck.)
460 ffisroRy OF ENGLAND.
by a demand for money, which the Commons would not vote unless
their grievances were attended to.
The king, it must be remembered, had refused the " tunnage and
poundage " duties altogether, because he could not get them granted
for his lifetime ; he was, therefore, in very great need of money, and
when Parliament met again the first thing they were asked to do was
to vote subsidies. The House of Commons were not in a good humour.
In the first place, they were angry with the king for having sent
English ships to help King Louis, and they declared that he was in
reality the friend of the Roman Catholics and the enemy of the
Protestants.
In the second place, they were very angry with Buckingham, whom
they believed to be the king's adviser in all the actions of which they
disapproved, and whom they specially blamed for the part he had
taken in the unfortunate expedition to La Rochelle. When, therefore,
they were asked to vote the subsidies they were more determined than
ever. Their grievances, they said, must be heard and redressed before
they would vote a penny. The king saw that nothing could be got
without sacrificing Buckingham, and he accordingly at once dissolved
this his first Parliament. Thus we see how King Charles made his first
attack upon the liberties of Parliament, and took the first step on the
path of despotism— the path which was destined to lead him to so
much misfortune.
The King Sets Aside Magna Charta.
" Whatever, by the manifestation of the Royal displeasure, tends to
intimidate individual members from proposing, or this House from receiving,
debating and passing Bills, tends to prevent even the beginning of every
reformation in the State, and utterly destroys the deliberative capacity
of Parliament. We, therefore, claim, demand, and insist upon it, as our
undoubted right, that no persons shall be deemed proper objects of animad-
version by the Crown, in any mode whatever, for the votes which they give,
or the propositions which they make, in Parliament. " — Burke : Motion on
Speech from the Throne, 1784.
Now that Parliament was dissolved, the king soon found himself in
a difficulty. The government of the country could not be carried on
without money, and money had to be got somehow. The king and
his ministers thought of two ways of getting it— the one a very dangerous
and foolish way, the other a wise one. The first step the king took
THE KING SETS ASIDE MACNA CHART A. 461
was to issue orders under the Great Seal for the payment of money.
Those to whom these orders were sent, for the most part, obeyed them,
fearing the anger of the king ; but they did not forget that in issuing
such orders the king was breaking the law laid down in the i2th
Article of Magna Charta, which says that — " No scutage or aid shall
be imposed in our Kingdom except by the Common Council of the
Realm."1
The feeling in the country was not yet strong enough to resist these
illegal demands, but they gave rise to a very bitter spirit, and helped
to turn men's minds against the king.
The second method by which Charles tried to get money was a
wiser 0112 than that which has just been described. The English
people have always been more easy to lead than to drive, and the
king, knowing this, thought that if he could carry out some policy
which was particularly pleasing to Parliament, he might obtain more
from the good will of the House of Commons than he could obtain
from its fears. He knew that one of the most popular things which
he could do would be to renew the war with Spain, and accordingly
an expedition was sent out to Cadiz to try to capture the Spanish
treasure-ships coming from South America.
But the expedition was very badly managed, and ended in a
complete failure, and thus, when at last, in February, 1626, Charles
was compelled to summon his second Parliament, he found the Commons
in no better humour than before. On the contrary, the very first thing
they did was to draw up a fresh list of their grievances, and to the old
grievances they now added new ones. They complained bitterly of the
ways in which the king had raised money: — ways which they declared
were altogether illegal. It was hardly wonderful, therefore, that when
the king sent a message to the House asking for a vote of money he
should have been met at once with the old request that he would first
redress grievances ; and among these grievances it was clear that the
continued favour shown to Buckingham was one of the most serious.
Then the king did an exceedingly foolish thing. He forgot all his
wise intentions of winning the Commons to his side by doing things
which would please them, and he began to threaten them. " I will be
willing," so ran the king's reply to the Commons — " I will be willing to
hear your grievances, as my predecessors have been, so that you will
apply yourselves to redress grievances and not to inquire after griev-
ances. I must let you know that I will not let any of my servants be
1 See also 34 Edward I., cap. i (de Tallagio non concedendo). " No Tallage or Aid shall be
taken or levied by u; or our Heirs in our Realm without the good Will and Assent of the
Archbishops, B^hops, Earls, Barons, Burgesses, and ovher Freemen of the Lind."
462 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
questioned by you : much less such as are of eminent place and near
to me. I see you specially aim at the Duke of Buckingham. I would
you would hasten for my supply,1 or else it will be worse for yourselves ;
for, if any ill happen, I think I shall be the last to feel it."
It is necessary to remember this answer, for it shows us clearly
what an important thing the House of Commons was fighting for.
The king declared that Parliament had no right whatever to question
any of iris servants or ministers. The House of Commons, in the year
i62^; declared that this was quite a mistake, and that it was both
the right and the duty of Parliament to inquire into what the ring's
ministers did, and to punish them if they did wrong.
We know that the view which was then held by the House of Com-
mons is the one which is now admitted by everyone in this country. It is
one of the chief rules of our Constitution that the ministers of the Crown
shall always be answerable to Parliament for everything which they do, and
for everything which they advise the sovereign to do. If what is done by
the ministers, or by the sovereign on the advice of the ministers, be
wrong, then it is on the ministers that the punishment falls. But we
shall see that a long and fierce fight was needed before King Charles
and those who came to the throne after him would admit that the
Parliament had the right to " question the king's servants.'"
The House of Commons replied to the king's threat by impeaching
Buckingham and bringing serious charges against him, some of which
were true, and some of which were false. It did not at all suit the
king's purpose to allow the charges to be tried, and once more he got
himself out of the difficulty for the moment by dissolving Parliament,
but not before the House of Commons had had time to draw up
another long list of its grievances.
Charles as an Absolute King.
" The Right Divine of Kings to govern wrong. "—Pope : " Dunciad."
The king had got rid of his troublesome House of Commons for a
time, but he had not got his money, and the money had to be obtained
somehow. Despite the protest of the Commons, methods which were
clearly illegal were once more resorted to. The king declared that the
country was in danger of invasion, though no one quite knew who was
going to invade it. The threatened invasion was made the excuse
1 Supply. — Th sum; of money voted by Parliam rnt are called ' Sup| 1 e^."
CHARLES AS AN ABSOLUTE KING.
463
for extorting money from all sorts of persons who were known to
possess it.
Parliament had refused to grant " tunnage and poundage" dues. The
king collected them without the consent of Parliament, by orders under
the Great Seal. The seaport towns, including the Port of London, were
compelled to furnish ships or the money to pay for ships. 'The Eoman
Catholics were compelled to pay heavy fines, and were made to serve as
soldiers contrary to the
law. But this was not
all. Not content with
breaking the law, the
king and his advisers
claimed that in doing
these illegal acts Charles
was doing no more than
he had a right to do by
his own power and with-
out the assent of Parlia-
ment.
There was at this
time a party in the Estab-
lished Church which was
always ready to claim as
much power and authority
for the king as possible.
They declared, as King
James had declared, that
kings ruled by "Divine
Right " ; that they were
appointed by God ; and
that they were, therefore,
not bound to obey the laws made for other people. At the head of
this party was Laud, Bishop of Bath and Wells, who was afterwards
made Archbishop of Canterbury. Laud and others went so far as to
say in their sermons that all that the king had done was right, and
that those who opposed him were not only bad subjects, but bad
Christians also.
It was natural that when men saw the king acting illegally, and when
they saw his illegal actions supported by the bishops, they were in the
greatest fear for their liberties. It was natural, too, that the Puritans
— who had long been opposed to the bishops, and who had suffered
much for refusing to obey the rules of the Established Church— should
ARCHBISHOP LAUD.
464 ff is TORY OF ENGLAND.
become the leaders in resisting the king. Indeed, from this time
forward, the division between the king's friends on the one side, and
the Puritans on the other, became greater from day to day. But
the time had not yet come when men were prepared openly to
resist the king. Sixteen years were to pass before the quarrel came
to the point of open fighting. We shall see that nearly everything
Charles did during those sixteen years helped to make the quarrel
more bitter.
In the year 1627, the year after the second Parliament had been
dissolved, five gentlemen were imprisoned by order of the king for
refusing to obey the king's orders to pay money. They declared
that, by law, they were not bound to pay the money. They were
accordingly sent to gaol without trial, and kept there. But all those
who have read the early part of our English history know that, so
far back as the year 1215, a law had been made which declared in
plain terms that " No Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned unless by the
lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land." These words
are to be found in the 29th Article of Magna Charta ; and it seemed
to everyone as if there could be no doubt whatever that the five
gentlemen had been imprisoned contrary to law.
The matter was tried before the judges in the Court of King's
Bench, and, to the surprise and dismay of all, the Chief Justice
Sir Nicholas Hyde, declared that the law had not been broken, but that
the prisoners, having been arrested by the special order of the king,
could not claim either to be let out or to be tried. To many it seemed
that the Chief Justice had given a wrong judgment in order to please
the king, but to all who loved liberty and the old law of England it
seemed that if the Chief Justice were right, and if the law had been truly
laid down by him, then it was high time that the law should be altered.
What was the good of the 2gth Article of Magna Charta if free men
could be taken and imprisoned without trial ?
The king knew quite well that in acting as he had done he was
making himself and his ministers hated by many of his subjects. He
therefore tried once more to win back the good will which he had lost,
by doing something which he thought would be pleasing to the people,
and especially to the Protestants. He accordingly sent a fresh expedi-
tion, under Buckingham, to help the Huguenots, but this second
expedition, like the first, ended in a total and disgraceful failure.
The Petition of Right : a Storm in the Commons,
"Que Droict soit faict" ("Let right be done").
In March, 1628, Charles was at last forced to call together his third
Parliament. It seemed as if his pride would never allow him to take
a wise step without also compelling him to take a foolish one which
undid all the good that his sensible conduct might have effected.
Many of those who had been imprisoned contrary to law were released,
but at the same time the king could not refrain from threatening the
House of Commons in words which only made its members more
stubborn and less friendly. As before, the king asked for money, and,
as before, the Commons gave the same answer, in the words of Sir
Thomas Wentworth, one of the members : " Grievances and supplies should
go hand in hand" In order that there might be no mistake as to what
their chief grievances were, the Commons drew up a petition to the
king, which was known as the "Petition of Eight." These were the
chief points in the Petition of Right : —
(1) That no man should be compelled to pay money to the king with-
out the consent of Parliament, and that no man be damaged or punished for
refusing to pay.
(2) That no man should be imprisoned without cause shown.
(3) That soldiers and sailors should not be quartered on the people against
their will.
(4) That in time of peace up one should be punished by martial law —
that is to say, by military law.
The King declined to give a straightforward answer to the petition.
He said that everything ought to be done which was just and right,
but he took care not to say that the particular things which the House
of Commons had asked for should be done. The House was greatly
disappointed, and the king seemed no nearer to getting his money
than before. Charles, however, discovered that the House of Commons
was in earnest. The Speaker came to him and told him what the
temper of the members was, and at last, in despair of getting the much-
needed money in any other way, the king, on June 7th, 1628, gave
orders that the Petition of Right should be acceded to, in the usual
words, " Let right be done.'" l The Commons were delighted. The
1 The answer of the Crown, in accepting or granting ttrms of a petition, was at that time,
and s.ill is, given in the old Norman- French, thus : " Soit Droict fait comtne il est desireV*
466 HISTORY OF ENGLA.\D~
king had performed his part of the bargain, and they were ready to
perform theirs. They voted the required subsidies without hesitation.
Then, however, there arose another difficulty. The king had
assented to the Petition of Right, not in the least desiring that right
should be done, but because he wanted money. The Commons had
compelled the king to sign the petition because they wanted to see the
abuses of which they complained done away with. When, however,
they came to put the king's promises to the test, they found Charles
as obstinate as ever. He had just promised that no man should be
compelled to pay taxes without the consent of Parliament, but he now
declared that "tunnage and poundage " were not taxes, and that he would
levy them whether the Commons liked it or not. The House of
Commons objected.
This time Charles did not at once dissolve Parliament, but he
prorogued it— that is to say, he dismissed it for a time. It seemed as if
the king could never hit on a new plan. Once more, in the hope
of pleasing the House of Commons, the Duke of Buckingham was
ordered to start off upon an expedition the object of which was to raise
the siege of La Rochelle, where the Huguenots were being besieged.
But this expedition was no less unfortunate than those which had gone
before it.
In Portsmouth High Street there is a house which is pointed out as
that in which George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was murdered.
Such, indeed, was the fate of Charles's favourite minister. Just as the
duke was about to embark with the fleet, he was stabbed to the heart
by one of his former officers, named Felton, who declared that in
committing the crime he believed he was serving the cause of God
and of his country.
Unluckily, the death of one bad adviser did not prevent Charles
from seeking the counsel of others who were neither wiser nor better.
Nothing could induce the king to perform the promises which he had
made when he gave his consent to the Petition of Right, and the
quarrel with the House of Commons, which had now re-assembled,
continued until at last it came to a head. Tired of the opposition he
met with, the king sent a message to the Commons to adjourn. The
Commons declined to adjourn.
On March 2nd, 1629, a second messenger was sent with a similai
command. The Speaker, Sir John Finch, who was a friend of the
Court, was about to read the king's message to the House, but the
members had duties which they were determined to perform, and they
feared lest Parliament might be dissolved and they might be all sent
about their business before they had time to perform them. Two of the
468 If is TORT OF ENGLAND.
boldest of the members, Denzil Holies and Valentine, stood one on each
side of the Speaker's chair, and by main force they held the Speaker
down and prevented him from reading the king's message.
The doors were locked. Everyone felt that a solemn and terrible
moment had come, and that dangers threatened of which none could
see the end. Some openly wept when they saw violence thus used in
the House of Commons and when they reflected that such violence was
necessary to protect the liberties of the people.
All were deeply moved. With the Speaker held down by main
force in his chair, and with the doors locked, the Commons passed
resolutions declaring once more their determination to maintain the
liberties which had been claimed in the Petition of Right. The king
came down to Westminster, and, furious at what he heard, would have
battered in the doors of the House of Commons. Happily, this last
act of violence was unnecessary. The resolutions were passed, and
the House had done its business, and was content to adjourn when the
king's messenger arrived.
Charles at once dissolved Parliament (March zoth, 1629), and his
first thought was to punish thos*e members who had taken the chief
part in the scene which has been described. One of them, Sir John
Eliot, was fined £2,000, Holies was fined a thousand marks, and
Valentine £500. All the offenders were sent to gaol, and Sir John
Eliot died in prison.
CHAPTER LIII.
THE KING DEFIES PARLIAMENT.
1630-1642.
Ship-money.
11 From the day on which the Houses met there was a war waged by them
against the king— a war for all that they held dear, a war carried on at first
by means of Parliamentary forms, at last by physical force."— Macaulay.
WTE have now come to the end of the first stage of the great struggle
between King and Parliament. In jive years Charles had summoned
and dissolved Parliament three times. Eleven years were now to pass
during which no Parliament was summoned, and during which the
470 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
king attempted to rule as an absolute sovereign. To rule as an
absolute sovereign, it was, above all things, necessary that Charles
should find some strong and determined man to serve him as his
minister.
Such a man he found in Sir Thomas Wentworth, who up to this time
had been not only a member of the House of Commons, but had been
one of those members who were foremost in opposing the king. It
showed some wisdom on the part of Charles that he was able to choose
out Wentworth as a man who could help him if he would, and it
showed skill on the king's part to be able to persuade Wentworth to
leave his old friends and to come over and join the king's party.
This, in fact, Wentworth did ; he was made Lord Wentworth, and from
that day forward to the end of his life faithfully served the king. We
shall see how ill Charles repaid him for his faithful service.
There were two great difficulties which the king had to meet and
overcome when he set himself to the task of governing England
without a Parliament. In the first place, there was the old difficulty
of want of money. Money had to be got, and yet it could only be
obtained by breaking the law, and every time the law was broken
the king made fresh enemies. Then there was the difficult task of
satisfying and keeping in order the Puritans.
The Puritan party was growing every day stronger and stronger ;
those who were opposed to the king and to the bishops on religious
grounds were now helped by those who opposed the king and the
bishops for political reasons. As it had so often happened before,
the moment the king began to persecute and punish the Puritans on
account of their religion, the Puritans became stronger and more
numerous than before. Those who cared little for the opinions which
the Puritans held began to look upon those who held them as men who
were unjustly and cruelly treated.
The want of money was the first thing which led to a difficulty. In
the year 1634 Charles undertook to help the King of Spain against the
Dutch, and promised to supply a certain number of ships for the
purpose. The p-eople of England were no friends to the Spaniards,
and had no desire to see the Dutch persecuted and defeated. They
did not wish to provide ships at all, still less did they wish to pay
money for them unless it had been voted by Parliament. But the
king declared that by an ancient custom he had the right to compel
the payment of " ship-money," and, acting under Wentworth's advice,
he sent collectors through the country to raise the tax.
It seemed as if Charles had made up his mind to try how com-
pletely he could set aside every Article of Magna Charta. He had
Two EVIL COUNSELLORS. 471
already caused men to be imprisoned without a trial; and now he made
it clear once more that, despite Magna Charta and despite the Petition
of Right, he intended to levy taxes without the consent of Parliament.
The attempt led to a trial which has become famous in the history
of England.
There was a gentleman named John Hampden, member of Parliament
for Buckinghamshire. He owned some land at Stoke Mandeville, near
Aylesbury. The collectors of " ship-money " came to him and told
him that he was bound to pay twenty shillings in respect of these lands.
Hampden declined to pay, and said that it was contrary to law that a
tax should be levied without the consent of Parliament, and that
Parliament had never consented to the levying of " ship-money."'
The point was tried before twelve of the judges, but, unluckily — as
in the case of the five members who had been tried before Sir Nicholas
Hyde— the judges, or the greater number of them, were on the side of
the king and wished to win his favour at any cost. Seven out of the
twelve declared that Hampden was in the wrong; and they did what
was much more serious — they laid it down as part of the law of England
that no Act of Parliament could take away or alter the power of the
king, or prevent him from ""commanding the subjects, person, property,
and money " of the people.
This judgment was a terrible blow to Hampden's party in the
House of Commons. Once more the people of England had reason
to feel that if the law were really what the judges declared it to be, it
was high time the law should bettered.
Two Evil Counsellors.
" Thorough. "—Motto of the Earl of Strafford.
The king now placed all his reliance upon Wentworth and upon Laud,
whom he had made Archbishop of Canterbury. Both the Archbishop
and Wentworth were very able men, and were ready to go great lengths
to serve their master ; but they showed more zeal than wisdom, and
what they did made Charles more disliked and distrusted than he was
before. Laud was determined that the laws by which the services in
the Established Church were fixed should be strictly carried out, and
that every one who broke them should be punished.
The Court of Star-Chamber, about which we read in the time of
472 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Henry VII., was made use of to try the offenders, and cruel punishments
were inflicted upon those who were brought before the Court. Those
who dared to say anything against the bishops and against the form
of service used in the Established Church were severely dealt with.
Prynne, a Puritan lawyer, who was said to have attacked the royal
f: unily in a book which he had written, was fined, put in the pillory,
had his ears cut off, and was sent to gaol. Many others were tried and
imprisoned by the Court of Star-Chamber.
Nor was Laud content to punish those who differed from the
bishops. He himself made changes within the Church which many of
those who had hitherto been its best friends did not like or think wise.
Some believed that he was a friend of the Roman Catholics, and that
he was trying to make the Church of England a Roman Catholic
Church. But it was not until he was so rash as to try to compel the
Scots to accept the rules and ceremonies of the Church of England that
he actually drove his enemies into civil war. The Archbishop was,
no doubt, an honest man, who believed that he did right in trying to
make everyone think the same as he did ; and two things must be
remembered in his favour when we condemn him for what he did or
tried to do in England.
In the first place, the law was on his side. The law declared that
all services and ceremonies in the country should be of one pattern ;
and Laud had a right to say, when he punished those who used other
forms and ceremonies, that they were breaking the law. In the second
place, it must not be forgotten tha* — though we hear much of the
Puritans, and though their leaders have become famous on account of
the part they took in opposing the king— the very great majority of
the people of England were at this time members of the Protestant
Established Church, were contented with its rules and services, and
wished to keep the Prayer- Book unaltered.
But when Laud, in an unhappy hour, tried to compel the Scots to
give up their own form of religion and to accept from him forms and
ceremonies which they hated, he soon found that though he could
punish and terrify a few offenders in England he could not either
punish or terrify a whole people. The Scottish Presbyterians were
furious when the English forms of service were used. In the great
church of St. Giles's, at Edinburgh, an incident took place which
deserves to be remembered, because the act of one person showed what
was in the minds of many. Among the congregation was a woman
named Janet Geddes. When she heard what she considered a Popish
service, and saw the ministers dressed in white surplices, which she
looked upon as the dress of the Roman Catholic priests, she f ^uld
Tiro Er/L COUNSELLORS. 473
Contain herself no longer. She took up the stool on which she sat (so,
at least, runs the story) and threw it at the head of the bishop.
Whether or not it be actually a fact that Janet Geddes threw her
stool at the bishop's head, it is undoubtedly a fact that the same spirit
which she is said to have shown, was shown in other ways by thousands
of the Scottish Presbyterians. They drew up a Declaration, called the
" Solemn League and Covenant," in which they laid down their views as
to how the Church should be governed, and condemned the changes
with which they were threatened. In all parts of Scotland men flocked
to sign The Covenant, and the " Covenanters " — as those who signed were
called — showed that they were ready, if necessary, to fight for their
faith.
An army was quickly raised, and, under the command of General
Alexander Leslie, marched towards the Border. Charles was at his
wits' end. The Scots were in arms, and he had no money to raise
troops to put down those whom he looked upon as rebels. A few
troops whom he could get together were useless, and ran away before
they were attacked. There was but one thing to be done. A truce
was made with the Scots, 'Charles undertaking to pay their expenses
as soon as Parliament met; and on April i3th, 1640, the king was
forced, much against his will, to assemble his fourth Parliament.
This time he hoped and believed that he would get what he
wanted. With a Scottish army actually on the Border, he felt sure
that the English Parliament would lose no time in doing all that was
necessary to defeat and drive back the invaders. He was, however,
mistaken ; and great must have been his disappointment when the
fourth .Parliament, like the first and the second and the third, began
its proceedings by declaring that before anything else was done their
grievances must be remedied.
The king, in his anger, dissolved Parliament on May 5th, after a
session of twenty-three days, and once more tried to rule as a despotic
sovereign. As before, Charles looked to Laud and Wentworth, who
had now been made Earl of Stratford, as his two chief advisers. They
showed once more that their advice and actions were more dangerous
than helpful to the king. Laud, who had long been hated by the
Puritans, now gave bitter offence to all who were supporters of the
Parliament by declaring that it was not only contrary to the law but
that it was idckcd and a sin against God to resist the king, whatever he
did. Englishmen were indignant when told that they were committing
a sin when obeying the law of the land as made by Parliament.
Nor did Strafford succeed any better in winning friends to the king.
He had been sent to Ireland as Lord Deputy, or Governor; and acting
474 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
on behalf of the king, and with the kind's consent, he had governed
Ireland as a despot, paying no attention either to Parliament or the
law. Strafford's well-known motto was the word " Thorough,'" and
whatever he undertook he certainly did thoroughly. It is not hard to
find excuses for the things which he did in Ireland, for the country was
really in a terrible state. The Irish Parliament had no power, and the
law was openly disregarded. Strafford was determined' that, whatever
else happened, order should be restored ; and, though the methods by
which he governed the country were cruel and despotic, he certainly
did. succeed in restoring peace and in bringing Ireland once more
under the government of the king.
But in order to do this he was compelled to raise and train an army
in Ireland, and this proved to be the cause of his downfall. His
enemies in England felt that if the king could once obtain the help of
a victorious general, with a strong, well-disciplined army, he would
soon be able to crush Parliament and to rule as he pleased. They,
therefore, looked anxiously for an opportunity to destroy Strafford's
power. It was not long before the opportunity came. The Scots still
remained in arms upon the Border, and at last actually crossed it and
marched into Northumberland and Durham. The king was really at
a loss what to do. He had no troops, and could raise none without
money.
The Long- Parliament.
" Put not thy trust in princes." — Words used by Strafford on hearing that
the king had abandoned him.
Once more Charles was compelled to summon Parliament. The fifth
and last Parliament of Charles I. met on November 3rd, 1640. This
famous Parliament, known as the " Long Parliament" sat for no less
than nineteen years and four months. It began its life as a powerful
and respected body, and it ended its days powerless and despised ;
but during its existence it did a great work.
The very first thing which the new Parliament did was to make a
fierce attack upon the two great enemies of its liberties — Strafford and
Laud. There were two ways in which Parliament might punish a man.
The one was to " Impeach " him ; the other, to bring against him a
"•Bill of Attainder." When a man was impeached the House of
Commons brought charges against him before the House of Lords.
The House of Lords sat as judges and tried the accused person. A
THOMAS WENTWORTH, EARL OF STRAFFORD.
(From a partrzii by Van Dyck.)
47° HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
"Bill of Attainder" was a bill brought into one of the Houses of
Parliament, passed through both Houses, and agreed to by the king;
it then became an Act like any other Act of Parliament, and had to be
obeyed as part of the law. In a Bill of Attainder the person accused
was declared to be guilty of certain crimes, and it was enacted that he
should be punished for them in a certain way. The punishment was
generally death.
Out of the two ways open to them of attacking Strafford, the House
of Commons chose the first. They impeached him of high treason before
the House of Lords. They said that he had acted contrary to law in
Ireland — that he had raised an army, and that he had offered to bring
the army into England to put down Parliament Strafford defended
himself bravely. He proved that what he had done, he had done not
only with the consent but with the approval of the king. He denied
that he had intended to bring an army into England.
The Commons soon found that they were not likely to prove their
case, and, fearing lest Strafford should escape, they suddenly changed
their plan and brought in a Bill of Attainder against the earl in the
House of Commons. The Bill was carried by a large majority.
The House of Lords also passed it. One thing only was needed to
make the Bill law and to insure the death of Strafford. That one
thing was the consent of the king. To his everlasting shame Charles
gave his consent and signed his name, knowing that by doing so he
was sacrificing the life of one of the most faithful servants he had
ever had. The terrible penalty was carried out. In the report of the
State Trials we read how an order was sent to the Constable of the
Tower to deliver over the " bright Execution Ax," and on May i2th,
1641, Strafford was beheaded.
Encouraged by their success, the House of Commons now impeached
Laud. He was removed from the office which he held, but nothing
further was done to him at the time. Bills were brought into the
House the object of which was to punish all 'those who had assisted
the king in his illegal actions. Some of them were passed. The
collection of "ship-money" was declared illegal. The judges who had
declared the contrary were impeached. The Court of Star-Chamber and
other similar courts were abolished. A Bill was passed providing that
a Parliament should be held every three years,1 and a Bill was actually
passed by which the king was forbidden to dissolve Parliament without
its own consent.
1 The "Triennial Bill."
477
Lhc Arrest of the Five Members.
" Privilege ! Privilege I "
The long struggle between the King and Commons had now come to
the stage when it could no longer be continued without war. It soon
became clear that if the king had consented to the new Bills, it was
only because he had felt himself compelled to do so by force and had
no intention of keeping his promises when free from restraint. Charles
saw plainly that it' he were to get his own way it could only be by
force of arms. He had lost so many friends by his tyranny and faith-
lessness, that he felt it was high time to make some new friends, who
would stand by him in the time of trouble.
It was in Scotland that he hoped to find them. Nor was he
disappointed. He went to Edinburgh, and succeeded, by promises,
favours, and rewards, in winning a large party in Scotland to his
side. Strengthened by his new friendships, he returned to London.
The Londoners welcomed him loyally, but the House of Commons
distrusted him, and not without reason; for they had learnt that
while in Scotland he had been planning how to punish the members
who had taken part against him.
Nor were the fear and distrust felt by the Commons diminished
when the king took away the guards who had hitherto protected
Parliament from violence. Once more a statement of the grievances of
Parliament, and of all the wrongs which had been done during the
reign, was drawn up by the Commons, and, after a stormy debate, was
passed and presented to the king.
Meanwhile the feeling between the two parties — the king's party
and the party of the Parliament — was growing more bitter every day.
There were riots in London, and the members declared that their lives
"were in danger from the king's friends when they went to Westminster.
The king bade them "have no fear." He said he would himself
protect them, and that " he would solemnly engage, on the word of a
king, the security of every one of them from violence." On the very
same day it was seen what was the value of the King's promise. On
that day (4th of January, 1642) six members of Parliament — Lord
Kimbolton, in the House of Lords, Pym, Hampden, Hazelrig, Holies, and
Strode, in the Commons— were charged by the king with High Treason,
The king himself actually came down to the House with a guard
478 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
of soldiers to arrest the members. He left his soldiers outside the
door, and entered the House of Commons. Then there followed a
strange and memorable scene.
" By your leave, Mr. Speaker," said the king to Speaker LenthalL
" I must borrow your chair a little " ; and Charles took his seat in the
Speaker's chair, Lenthall kneeling before him, and the members standing
with their hats off. Then the king told the house what he had come
for — that those who were to be arrested were guilty of High Treason,
and that he came to know if they were there. He looked round the
House, but none of the accused were in their places. They had
received warning in time and had kept away.
The king asked the Speaker where the missing members were.
Lenthall, on his knees, replied that he had " neither eyes to see nor
tongue to speak but as the House directed." " Well," said the king,
" since I see all the birds are flown, I do expect, as soon as they return,
you do send them to me "; and, mortified and angry, he left the House,
the members, as he went, calling out "Privilege/ Privilege/" by which
they meant that the king had acted contrary to the Rights and
Privileges of the House.
But one more step remained to be taken before the long quarrel
ended in war. The Commons, anxious for their own safety, claimed
the right to appoint officers for the militia. The king at once refused
the request, and the Commons as promptly took steps to appoint the
officers without the king's consent. It was now clear that nothing
could settle the differences between the two parties but war, and
preparations were at once made on both sides for fighting the
battle out.
Both king and Parliament began to raise troops and to collect
ammunition. On the 23rd of April, 1642 (St. George's Day), the first
act of civil war took place. On that day Sir John Hotham, who was in
command at Hull, refused to obey the king's order to give up the
arms and magazines stored in the town, and shut the gates against
the king.
KING CHAKLES AND Sl'EAKEK LKNTHA.LL,
480 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
CHAPTER LIY.
HOW PARLIAMENT PUNISHED THE KING.
1642—1649.
War.
'•is it peace or war? better, war! loud war by land and by sea;
War with a thousand battles and shaking a hundred thrones. '''
Tennyson : " Afaud.''
AND now we have come to the end of the second and to the be-
ginning of the third part of the great struggle between Charles and
Parliament ; and the interest which has hitherto been confined to
the walls of the House of Commons is now transferred to the camp
and the battle-field.
On the 22nd of August, 1642, Charles raised his royal standard at
Nottingham. The flag was blown down, and had to be set up again.
Some declared that this M as a bad sign for the king's cause. The
royal army was under the command of the king himself and of the
Earl of Lindsay, a Scottish general. The king's nephews, Rupert and
Maurice, came over from Germany, longing to win glory in the war, and
were given commands in the cavalry. At the head of the Parlia-
mentary army was the Earl of Essex, and under him was an officer
who played so great a part in the war that followed, that we must
atop, for a moment to speak about him.
Among the members who had been elected to the third Parliament
of King Charles's reign was a gentleman from Huntingdon, who sat as
member for the town in which he lived. His name was Oliver Cromwell,
and when he entered Parliament he was twenty-nine years of age. He
was the son of Robert and Elizabeth Cromwell, who were well-to-do
East-country people. He had been brought up at Huntingdon School,
and had been to college at the University of Cambridge. In his
twenty-second year he married Elizabeth Bourchier, and lived on his
own property, farming the land. He was a good rider, fond of sports,
active, and strong both in mind and body. He was elected in 1629 for
Cambridge, and took a great part in the work of the " Long Parliament S'
He was now given the command of the Train-bands, or " Town Militia^
who had been called out to serve the Parliament.
There is not room in this little book to tell at any length the story
PRINCE RUPERT.
(From the portrait by Van Dyck.}
482
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
of the Civil War between the king and Parliament — the Cavaliers
and Roundheads. Many books have been written giving accounts of
the battles, the sieges, and the marches. It was a terrible war, as
every civil war must be. Families were divided, brothers sometimes
fought on different sides, and English blood was shed by English
hands.
The first part of the war was favourable to the king. This was,
CAVALIER SOf-DlEKS.
indeed, to be expected. There were very few regular soldiers in
England, and most of those who there were had joined the king.
Then, again, the Cavaliers were for the most part gentlemen who had
been accustomed to use their swords, were good riders, and who were
by their training taught that it was disgraceful to show fear. They
had with them, too, soldiers like Prince Rupert and his brother Prince
Maurice, who had been brought up in the midst of war, and to whom
fighting was a very familiar occupation.
The Royalists also had what seemed another great advantage in
having one man at the head of their party to whom all could look, and
who could give orders which everyone was bound to obey. Nothing
makes an army so strong in war as having a head who is obeyed by
EDGEHILL. 483
all, and who gives wise orders to those under him. Unfortunately
for the Cavaliers, King Charles turned out to be a very bad head
for his party, and he managed so badly that he gave time to his
enemies to choose out among themselves a really great leader, for
whom Charles was no match at all.
But at the beginning of the war the Parliamentary army was under
great disadvantages. It was made up of men who were for the most
part quite unaccustomed to fighting, and many of whom had never
handled a sword or a musket. Some of the soldiers were brave
enough, but it has always been found in war that bravery alone is
not sufficient to secure victory. Discipline and practice are also needed,
and the Parliamentary troops were at first without either discipline
or practice.
There was also another thing which gave an advantage to the
Cavaliers at first. Among the gentlemen who followed King Charles
there was not one who would not have considered it disgraceful to
show cowardice in battle. Many of them were bad men, and lived
careless, useless lives; but when they came to fighting there is no
doubt that they had an advantage over the lawyers, shopkeepers, and
labourers, who had never cared for fighting or made it the chief end
of their lives. Many of the Cavaliers, at the beginning of the war.
fought for " Honour." Honour is not the best thing to fight for ; but
the man who fights for honour will generally be a better soldier than
a man who fights merely because he is paid to fight ; and at the
beginning of the war a great many of the Parliamentary soldiers only
fought because they were paid to do so.
It was not till there arose in the Parliamentary army soldiers who
fought for something better than honour — namely, Religion and Duty —
that the Parliamentary troops became victorious. We shall see how
in time Oliver Cromwell raised up a body of soldiers who fought for
religion and duty, and who had also learnt discipline and the use of
their arms, and how this new force carried all before it.
The first battle was fought at Edgehill, near Banbury, on the 23rd of
October, 1642. The king's troops got the best of the day. Many of
the Roundhead soldiers ran away without fighting ; and if Prince
Rupert had not been too keen in his pursuit of those who fled, the
king would have won a great victory. Cromwell, with his soldier's
eye, saw that if his party were going to win it must have better tools
than these runaway soldiers. " It is plain" said he to his friend
John Hampden, " that men of religion are wanted to withstand these
gentlemen of honour" It was feared that the king would advance
upon London ; and the royal army actually got so far as Brentford,
484 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
ten miles from London ; but at the last moment the king determined
to fall back upon Oxford.
England had now begun to divide itself into two parts. The
West and South-west for the most part, went with the king. The
Eastern Counties were mostly for the Parliament. The counties of
Cambridge, Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex, and Hertford, and later on Huntingdon
and Lincoln, formed themselves into a league against the king. This
league was called " The Association," and Cromwell succeeded in
making it a strong and united body.
Cromwell and the "Ironsides,"
'But hark! what means this trampling of horsemen on our rear?
Whose banner do I see, boys? 'Tis he, thank God, 'tis he, boys!
Bear up another moment, brave Oliver is here."
" With heads all stooping low, with points all in a row,
Like a whirlwind on the trees, like a deluge on the dikes,
Our Cuirassiers have burst on the ranks of the accurst,
And with one blast have scattered the forest of his pikes. "
Macaulay : " Naseby."
In the year 1643 things went badly with the Parliament. Their
troops were defeated in many places, and one of the best men in the
party lost his life. This was John Hampden, whose death took place
during a small skirmish at Chalgrove Field, near Oxford. It is said that
he was killed by the explosion of his own pistol, which had been
loaded with two charges by mistake.
Matters looked so bad for the cause of Parliament that the leaders
now looked about for fresh allies, and succeeded in persuading the
Scottish Covenanters to aid them with an army of over 20,000 men.
And now at last the fortune of war began to turn for the first time
against King Charles. Gloucester, which was besieged by the royal
troops, was relieved by the Parliamentary general, the Earl of Essex.
A drawn battle was fought at Newbury, in Berkshire, in which one of
the best and wisest of the king's advisers— the good and brave Lord
Falkland— lost his life.
In his great " History of the Rebellion " Clarendon thus describes
the beautiful character of his friend Falkland -.—That little person and
small stature was quickly found to contain a gnat heart, a courage so keen,
and a nature so fearless that no composition of the strongest limbs and most
CROMWELL AND THE " IRONSIDES?
485
harmonious and proportioned presence and strength ever more disposed any
man to the greatest enterprise ; it being his greatest weakness to be too
solicitous for such adventures. His disposition and nature were so gentle and
obliging, so much delighted in courtesy, kindness and generosity, that all
mankind could not but admire and love him.'"
While the Parliament sought help from the Scottish Covenanters,
the king succeeded in raising troops among his friends, both in
Scotland and Ireland ; and
thus the Civil War spread
further and further over
England, Scotland, and
Ireland. In 1644 Lord
Fairfax, a Yorkshireman
and a member of the Long
Parliament, was in com-
mand of the Parliamentary
army in the north of Eng-
land, and under him was
General Cromwell, command-
ing a regiment of horse.
We have already seen what
kind of men General Crom-
well wanted to have under
his command. He wanted
men of "honour" and
" religion." He had now
got what he wanted ; and
for the first time Prince
Rupert and his Cavaliers
found themselves face to
face with an enemy who was more than a match for them.
Towards the end of the year 1643 Cromwell had written a letter to
two friends in Cambridge, in which he spoke of a success which had
been won by some of the cavalry under his command. He writes : —
" God hath given the victory to our handful ; let us endeavour to keep it. I
had rather have a plain russet-coated captain that knows what he fights for,
and loves what he knows, than that which you call a ' gentleman ' and is
nothing else. I honour a gentleman that is so, indeed " ; and in another
part of the letter he says : — " I beseech you be careful what captains of
horse you choose—what men be mounted; a few honest men are better
than numbers."
Cromwell was not the man to give advice to others without
JOHN HAMPDEN.
486
If /s TORT OF ENGLAND.
following his own precepts. He had already raised a "handful" of
troopers — honest men, who knew what they fought for, and loved what
they knew; and from this "handful" grew the famous regiment of
cavalry known as Cromwell's Ironsides— men who were never beaten,
who cut their way to victory on every English battlefield, and who,
when war was over in England and when they were forced to take
service in foreign lands, were admitted
by the best soldiers in Europe to be
the most formidable cavalry the world
had ever seen.
The Ironsides were taken, for the
most part, from among the Indepen-
dents. The Independents were men who
went even further than the Presby-
terians, and most of the Parliamentary
party, in their hatred of the bishops
and the king ; and many of them
were Republicans, who wished to see
the country governed without a king
at all. Those of them who served in
Cromwell's regiment of " Ironsides "
were men of very strict religious views.
The Bible was constantly read in the
regiments, both in camp and in the
field. Both officers and men believed
that in fighting against the king they
were fighting against the enemies of
God. Many of them took fresh names,
chosen from the Old Testament, and
some made up strange names out of
texts of Scripture, such as " Corporal
of Horse Ebenezer Rest-in-the-Lord,"
" Sergeant O-be-thankful Johnson," or " Trooper Solomon Praise-
God."
It must not be supposed, however, that either their religion or their
belief in their cause would have made the Ironsides into good soldiers
if they had not learnt the duties of a soldier. Cromwell knew this well
enough, and he took pains to instruct his men in the very best drill
which was then known in Europe. The ' men were well mounted on
stout horses, and knew how to ride. They wore buff leather coats,
iron helmets and breastplates, and long leather boots. They carried
heavy, straight swords, which they knew well how to use. They were
STATUE OF FALKLAND IN THE
HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT.
(Photo by York &> Son.)
THE RISE OF THE "INDEPENDENTS? 487
under very strict discipline, and were as fine a body of horsemen as
ever served under any general.
It was not long before the Royalists found out what sort of men
they had to deal with. On the 3rd of July, 1644, a battle took place at.
Marston Moor, in Yorkshire. For the first time Cromwell's new
cavalry took part in a great battle. The king's troops were unable
to stand up against them. " The Left Wing, which I commanded," writes
Cromwell after the battle, " being our own horse . . . beat all the
Prince's Horse.1 God made them as stubble to our swords. We charged
their regiments of foot with our horse, and routed all we charged." The
battle of Marston Moor made Fairfax (son of the Lord Fairfax already
mentioned, the Parliamentary general) master of the north of England,
but everyone knew that, the victory was due to Cromwell.
The Rise of the "Independents" and the "New Model."
"Put your trust in God and keep your powder dry."— Cromwell's advice
to his soldiers.
Up to this time there had been only two parties — one for the king,
the other for the Parliament ; but a new party now began to grow
up, which in the end became more powerful than either of the others.
This was the " Independent Party" which was really the party of the
Army. It is not hard to see how the Independent party won its
power. A large body of men like the House of Commons is well
fitted to hold great debates and to make laws. In time of peace
it may even be able to govern the country ; but in time of war, espe-
cially in time of civil war, it will almost always happen that if those
who are more accustomed to talking than to fighting and acting, try
to carry on the war themselves, they will fail in the attempt. Those
who have really to act and to do the fighting are sure to become the
most powerful party in the country, and the leaders of such a party
will soon object to being interfered with by those who talk and pass
resolutions, but do not risk their lives on the battlefield.
And so it was in the quarrel between the king and Parliament.
The leaders of the Army soon began to feel their power, and the better
and more successful the Army was, the greater its power became.
Hence, before long, there grew up great differences of opinion between
the members of the Parliament, who were mostly Presbyterians, and
1 Prince Rupert.
488
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the chiefs of the Army, many of whom were Independents. The first
sign of this quarrel was seen in the year 1645, when it was proposed
that no member of Parliament should be allowed to keep his place as
an officer in the Army.
This proposal was agreed to. It was known as the "Self-denying
Ordinance," because it was supposed that the members had of their
own will denied themselves the right of serving in both the Army and
ROUNDHEAD SOLDIERS.
in Parliament. Cromwell, who had now been made a major-general,
was very pleased with the result, because it took away from the Army
Essex and some other officers who were above him in rank, and under
whom he did not wish to serve.
Cromwell, however, had no intention of either going out of Parlia-
ment or out of the Army. An exception was made in his favour on
account of the good service he had done, and he was allowed both to
keep his seat in Parliament and his post as Major-General. Fairfax
was made General-in-Chief, and Cromwell was given command of tbo
cavalry. Now that the soldiers had got the Army to themselves, they
set to work to improve it. It was made into an army much more
like the regular armies which are kept up in our own time. Proper
THE KINGS CROWN C/W..V DOWN. 489
regiments were formed, and men served for a fixed time, and were
regularly drilled and paid. Proper discipline was observed. The
Army, thus improved, was known as the " New Model." Both the
king's party and the Parliament were now more inclined for peace
than they had been before, and, if it had not been for the "New
Model " army, peace might perhaps have been made.
But Charles, learning that there was a division between his
enemies, put an end to the negotiations which had been begun,
and the war went on, In Scotland the Earl of Montrose headed the
king's party. The Marquis of Argyle, the head of the great clan of the
Campbells, was the chief leader on the Parliamentary side. There was
fierce fighting, and for a time the king's party got rather the best of it.
But a great blow was awaiting the royal cause in England. On
the 14th of June, 1645, was fought the battle of Naseby, in Northampton-
shire. The " New Model " army was for the first time employed.
The victory of Fairfax and Cromwell was complete : the king's army
was broken and destroyed ; no less than 1,000 of the royal troops were
killed and wounded, and 5,000 taken prisoners.
It was in this year (1645) that Archbishop Laud, who had been
imprisoned since his trial in 1641, was executed.
The King's Crown Goes Down0
" Kings with their armies did flee and were discomfited. "
Psalm Ixviii. 12.
From this time forward the royal cause suffered defeat in almost
every part of the kingdom. Fairfax relieved Taunton, and stormed
Bridgwater and Bristol ; Montrose was defeated in Scotland ; the royal
troops in Cornwall, who had hitherto held their own, were dispersed ;
and finally, Oxford, in which the king had so long held his Court,
surrendered to General Fairfax in June, 1646.
The king was beaten in the field. The only hope left to him was
to try to win by craft what he could not win by war. He made offers
separately to Parliament and to the heads of the Army, hoping that
he could persuade either the one or the other to act alone, and thus
raise a quarrel. Bat the plan failed. In despair, he decided to
trust himself to the Scots, and fled to the Scottish army, which at
that time had marched as far south as Newark, in Nottinghamshire.
To the Scots he made all manner of promises if only they would
Q*
490
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
desert the cause of the Parliament. But once more his efforts failed.
Parliament undertook to pay £400,000 to the Scottish army it
they would go back into Scotland and give up the king. The Scots
took the money, withdrew to Newcastle, and on the 3oth of January5
1647, handed over King Charles to his enemies.
The king was taken a prisoner to
Holmby House, in Northamptonshire.
At first it seemed as if Charles would be
more dangerous as a prisoner than he had
been when free, for already many of the
Presbyterian party in Parliament, who
were afraid of the Independents and of the
Army, were ready to make terms with him ;
but the Army was by no means ready to
lose its prisoner, and an officer of cavalry,
Cornet Joyce by name, settled the question
in a rough-and-ready way by riding up
to Holmby House with 500 troopers, and
taking the king off to Newmarket.
The quarrs1. between the Presbyterians and the Independents grew
sharper than ever, but the king was now a safe prisoner in the hands
SIEGE PIECE (value IOS.) IS-
SUED DURING THE SIEGE
OF COLCHESTER.
SIEGE-PIECE ISSUED DURING THE SIEGE OF NEWARK.
of the latter. Orders were given to the Army to march to London.
Their advance greatly frightened the Presbyterian party. They feared
for the safety of Parliament, and were even afraid for their own lives.
At one time they thought of raising soldiers to protect themselves,
but they found they were not strong enough to do so, and that the
Londoners would not stand by them ; and in August, 1647, the Army
marched into London.
THE KING'S CROWN GOES DOWN. 491
The Independents were now masters of the situation, and the Inde-
pendents hated the king. What is more, they knew that they had no
mercy to expect from him in case he once more got the upper hand.
It was Charles's misfortune that he could get no one to trust his word,
but it was a misfortune which he had brought upon himself, for he
had so often deceived and betrayed his best friends, that it was not
wonderful his enemies should distrust him. Charles well knew the
danger he was in.
He had been taken from Newmarket to Hampton Court, but at
the end of November, 1647, he succeeded in escaping, and fled
to Carisbrooke Castle, in the Isle of Wight. While there he tried
to induce the Scots to help him once more, and he did all he could
to increase the number of his friends in England. His efforts met
with some success. The Scottish Parliament actually decided to send
an army into England, and the king's friends, among whom there
were now many of the Presbyterians, rose in arms.
The Independents and the heads of the Army saw very plainly
that they must either put down their new enemies at once, or must
themselves be in great danger of destruction. They decided to act
with vigour and promptitude. Fairfax defeated the king's friends in
Kent. Cromwell and General Lambert destroyed the Scottish army at
Preston. Charles's last hope was now gone. He tried to escape from
Carisbrooke, as he had succeeded in doing from Hampton Court, but
was prevented, and was shut up in a strong prison at Hurst Castle,
in Hampshire, just opposite the Isle of WTight.
The Army at last was victorious over all its enemies, and the
leaders of the Army were now determined upon a step which they
thought would enable them to keep their power. The Army had been
made by the Parliament, and it had declared that it was in the cause
of Parliament it had fought. But the time had now come when it
was to strike a terrible blow against the very Parliament to which it
owed its existence. The majority in the House of Commons voted in
favour of coming to an agreement with the king. The heads of the
Army were determined that no such agreement should be come to.
On the 6th of December, 1648, Colonel Pride, with a party of cavalry
soldiers, marched down to the House of Commons, and, standing at
the door, ordered his troopers to arrest the members of the Pres-
byterian party as they came out. Those who were arrested were
hurried off to prison. And thus we see that, within six years of the
time when Charles had brought about civil war by trying to arrest five
members of the House of Commons, a military officer belonging to that
very army which Parliament had created arrested not only jive but
49 2 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
over fifty members within the very walls of Parliament, and with no
other authority than the sword by his side.
This violent act of Colonel Pride's was called " Pride's Purge," for
it was said that he had purged the evil out of the House of Commons.
About fifty members only remained in the House of Commons, all of
them Independents, and ready to do exactly what the Army ordered
them to do. These remaining members were called the " Rump,"
and for five years to come the " Rump " were the only representa-
tives of the Commons of England.
The Death of the King.
"It is ordered That the Officers of the Ordnance within the Tower of
London, or any other Officer or Officers of the Store within the said Tower, in
whose hands and custody the bright execution Ax for the executing Male-
factors is, do forthwith deliver unto Edward Dendy, Esq., Serjeant-at-Arms
attending this Court, or his Deputy, or Deputies, the said Ax. And for their,
or either of their, so doing this shall be their warrant.''— Order sent by the
High Court to Colonel John White, Governor of the Tower (" State Trials ").
The leaders of the Army now were free to carry out their will with
respect to the king, and their will and intention was that he should
die. Charles was brought up under a guard from Hurst Castle to
Whitehall. A Bill was passed declaring that it was High Treason to
make war upon Parliament, and a High Court of Justice was appointed
to try the question of whether the king had been guilty of high
treason or not.
On the 20th of January, 1649, the High Court was called together,
and Bradshaw, a lawyer, was put at the head of it. Charles wa>-
brought before his judges. He at once declared that the Court had
no right whatever to try him, and there can be no doubt at all that,
according to the law of England, he was perfectly correct, and that
it had not the least right to do so. It must not be forgotten, how-
ever, that Charles himself had frequently broken the law, and that,
for a long time past, force and not law had ruled in England.
The trial took place in Westminster Hall. A full account of it has
come down to us. There is not room here to give this full account, but
it is well to know what were the charges which were brought against
the King of England. This was the charge as Bradshaw spoke it : —
THE DEATH OF THE KING. 493
i
" Charles Stuart, King of England.— The Commons of England, being
deeply sensible of the calamities that have been brought upon this nation,
which are fixed upon you as the principal author of them, have resolved to
make inquisition for blood ; and according to that debt and due they owe to
justice, to God, the kingdom, and themselves, they have resolved to bring you
to trial and judgment ; and for that purpose have constituted this High Court
of Justice before which you are brought."
The trial lasted several days. Charles bore himself with courage
and dignity. The eyes of all men were fixed upon him in his last
hours, and pity and admiration for his courage won him and his cause
many friends and made many who had been his enemies forget their
enmity. But from the beginning the Court had made up its mind as
to its sentence, and Bradshaw read that sentence in these words : —
" That the Court, being satisfied in conscience that he, Charles Stuart, is guilty
of the crimes of which he hath been accused, doth adjudge him as a tyrant,
traitor, murderer, and public enemy to the good people of the nation, to be
put to death by severing his 'head from his body" The same warrant was
sent to the Governor of the Tower as had been sent before Strafford's
death, but this time it was to order the Governor to " deliver up the
bright ax " for the execution of Strafford's master, Charles himself.
The king was sent a prisoner to St. James's Palace, where two of
his children— Henry and Elizabeth— were allowed to visit him. A
touching account is given of the king's last parting from his children.
On the 3oth of January, when the snow was on the ground, the king,
attended by Juxon, Bishop of London, was taken to the place of
execution outside the Banqueting Hall, Whitehall.1
From the scaffold Charles spoke to those who could hear him. At
the last moment Juxon said to him : " There is but one stage more,
which though turbulent and troublesome, is yet a very short one. Consider
it will carry you a great way —even from earth to heaven" " I go," replied
the king, "from a corruptible crown to an incorruptible, where no disturbance
can take place."
He laid his head upon the block, and the executioner severed it at
one stroke. Holding up the head in one hand, he cried, " Here is the
head of a traitor ! " The Army had triumphed, and their enemy was
dead, but in his death he had done them more harm than he could do
in his life. Bradshaw and his friends might look upon the king as a
" Traitor" but now that he was gone the people of England began to
look upon him as a " Martyr," and it might truly be said of him that
"nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it" From that day
1 The Rarqueting Hall afterwards became the Chapel Royal, VVh tehall, but is now occupied
by the Rcyal United Service In titution.
494
OF ENGLAND,
forward the Royalist party, though defeated and powerless for a time,
became stronger, till at last it became once more the strongest party in
the land.
CHAPTER LV.
THE COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND.
1649-1660.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE PERIOD OF THE
COMMONWEALTH
Oliver Cromwell, afterwards Lord Pro-
tector, b. 1 599, d. 1658.
Elizabeth BOUrchier, wife of Oliver Crom-
well.
RieLard Cromwell, afterwards Lord
Protector.
Charles Stuart, Prince of Wales, afterwards
King of England.
LOUIS XIV., King of France.
Phiiip IV., King of Spain.
Ferdinand III., Emperor, d. 1657.
Leopold L, son of Ferdinand, Emperor.
William II., Stadtholder of Holland, d. 1650.
Mary, daughter of Charles I., wife of William
II. of Holland.
William Henry, son of William II. of
Holland and King of England.
Charles X., King of Sweden, d. 1660.
Innocent X , Pope, d. 1655.
Alexander VII., Pope, d. 1667.
Clement IX., Pope.
Prince Rupert., cousin to Charles Stuart
Prince of Wales.
Parliamentary Generals :—
Monk, *fcerwards Duke of Albemarle.
Lord Fairfax.
Ireton, son-in-law to Cromwell, d. 1651.
The Earl of Montrose, executed 1650.
Robert Blake, " Genera.-at-Sea," d.
J657-
Van,Tromp, Dutch Admiral, d. 1653.
De Ruyter, Dutch Admiral.
Cardinal Mazarin, Minister of Louis XIV.
William Lenthall, Speaker of the Loug
Parliament.
Great Writers :—
John Milton.
Edmund Waller, b. 1606.
John Bunyan, b. 1628.
Dr. William Harvey, d. 1657.
George FOX, founder of the Society of Friei.ds,
or Quakers.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE PERIOD OF THE
COMMONWEALTH.
1649. Cromwell restores order in Ireland.
1650. Earl of Montrose defeated and
executed.
Cromwell wins the battle of Dunbar.
Birth of William of Orange, afterwards
William III.
The Dutch take the Cape of Good
Hope.
1051. Charles II. begins campaign in Scot-
land.
Battle of Worcester.
1652. War between England and Holland.
1653. Naval battles between Blake and Van
Tromp.
Cromwell dissolves the Long Parlia-
ment.
1653 " Barebone's Parliament" summoned
and dissolved.
Cromwell appointed Lord Protector.
1654. Peace with Holland.
1656. War between England and Spain.
1657. Plots against Cromwell discovered.
Blake defeats the Spaniards at >ea.
House of Lords re-established.
1658. Death of Oliver CromwelL Richard
declared Protector.
1659. '"Rump" Parliament re-assemblis.
Quarrel between the Parlnment and
the Army.
1660. Monk enters London and declares for
a *' free" Pailiament.
496
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The Commons Triumphant.
'Down, down, for ever down with the mitre and the crown.
* # * ** * * *
. . . the kings of earth in fear shall shudder when they hear
What the hand of God hath wrought for the Houses and the Word. 9i
Macaulay. (Supposed to be spoken by Obadiah Bind-their-kings-in-chains-
and-their-nobles-ii'ith-links-of-iron, sergeant in Ireton's regiment.}
WE now come to a very interesting and important part in the history
of England. It deals with the eleven years which passed between
the execution of Charles I., in 1649, and the restoration of his son
Charles II., in the
year 1660. The
period is known
as that of the
Commonwealth.
We may learn
two useful lessons
from what took
place during these
eleven years. In
the first place, we
may learn how
great a work may
be done by a.strong
resolute English-
man who believes
in the cause for
which he fights,
and who has the
power to carry out
his will. In the
second place, we
may learn how im-
possible it is even for the greatest and strongest of men to govern
the people of England for long against their will, and how a govern-
ment which is built upon force alone is certain to fail at length
LJKKAT SEAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND
(OHVKRSE).
TIIK COMMONS TRIUMPHANT.
497
in a 'country in which people have for centuries been accustomed to
freedom.
On the death of Charles it seemed as if the party of the Independents
were all-powerful in the land. All the chief commands in the Army
were held by them, and the strongest and most feared of all the chiefs
of the Army was Oliver Cromwell, who was himself one of the leaders
of the party. There was, indeed, no force in the kingdom which
was able to stand
up against the vic-
t irious Army. The
king's eldest son
— Charles, Prince of
Wales — had now
become king by
right on the death
of his father, but
he was only nine-
teen years old,
and not to be
feared. It was,
however, declared
by Parliament that
to speak of him
or to proclaim him
as king was high
treason. Having
put to death one
king and having
declared it high
treason to pro-
claim another, the House of Commons, or what was left of it, now
turned its attention to the House of Lords.
The greater number of the members of the House of Lords had
supported the king throughout the war. Only a few had remained in
their places, and the House had ceased to have any power at all. The
House of Commons decid>sd to abolish it, and on February 6th, 1649,
the " Rump " voted, by 44 votes to 29, that " the House of Peers in
Parliament is useless and dangerous, and ought to be abolished.'" An Act
was afterwards passed to abolish the House of Lords. It was plainly
impossible, however, to go on making laws for long when there was
neither a king nor a House of Lords, and when the House of Commons
under a hundred members, all belonging to one party. It
GREAT SEAL OF
: COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND
(REVERSE).
4Q& HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
was decided, therefore, to recall some of the members of the Long
Parliament who had been turned out, and the number of the House
of Commons was thus raised to 150.
Another Act of Parliament was now passed declaring that England
was no longer a kingdom, but was for ever afterwards to be a Republic.
A Council of State of forty-one members was appointed to carry on the
Government. Oliver Cromwell, Hazelrig, Skippon, Hutchinson, all of them
soldiers, were among the principal members. John Milton, the great
poet who wrote " Paradise Los/," was made Secretary to the Council.
A number of the chief Royalists were tried for the part they had taken
in the war, and several were executed.
Cromwell in Ireland.
"0 my poor Kingdom, sick with civil blows."
Shakespeare : "Henry IV.," Ft. II., Act IV., Scene 4.
Now that the new Government had been set up, and had got rid of
its worst enemies, it was time to set to work to restore peace and order
and to carry on the business of the country. Ireland was the first place
which required attention. There were many in Ireland who were
always enemies to the English Government, and there were also the
king's friends in that country. These two parties were now united in
arms against the Parliament. It was decided to send over Cromwell,
as Lord Lieutenant, with an army to put down all disorder.
In August, 1649, Cromwell sailed from Bristol to take the command
in Ireland. He had already become the most powerful man in
England, and he was not slow to show by outward signs that he knew
how great and important a person he had become. He drove to
Bristol in state in a coach-and-six, with eighty Life Guards in rich
uniforms surrounding his carriage. Trumpets were sounded before
him. Already some men began to think that they had only got rid of
one king to set up another.
Of this opinion were the " Levellers," a party in the Army who did
not think that the Independents had gone far enough, and who were
ready to destroy any other thing besides the Crown and the House of
Lords. They wanted to pull down or level everything, and for this
reason they were known as "Levellers." So powerful had the Levellers
become that, when the regiments were ordered to start for Ireland,
they succeeded in creating a mutiny, which was only put down with
some difficulty by Fairfax and Cromwell.
AND WORCESTER* 499
There is not space here to tell the story of Cromwell's war in
Ireland at any length. It was a war carried on with great severity
and often with great cruelty, and, like all civil wars, it left behind
very bitter memories. From first to last, however, Cromwell showed
himself a skilful general and a most resolute soldier. When he landed
in Ireland, only two places in the whole island, Dublin and London-
derry, still held out for the Parliament, and everywhere the Protestants
who had favoured the cause of Parliament were in danger of being
plundered and of losing their lives.
Cromwell's campaign was short but decisive. The troops he had
with him were the Roundhead soldiers, who had been taught to
conquer upon the battlefields of Marston Moor and Naseby. Their
discipline was good and their training was good. Neither the Royalists
nor their Irish allies could resist them. The Marquis of Orniond
advanced with a royal army upon Dublin. Cromwell attacked him
and destroyed his army at the village of Rathmines, just outside Dublin.
Marching northward, Cromwell laid siege to Drogheda, a town on
the Boyne. On September nth he stormed the town at the head of
his troops. The garrison were treated as rebels taken in arms, and
were put to death. Londonderry was relieved.
Wexford was summoned to surrender. The governor refused.
Cromwell sent a message to tell him he must take the consequences.
The town was stormed and taken, and the garrison, like that of
Drogheda, put to the sword. Kilkenny and Clomnel were taken early
in the next year (1650). Waterford alone held out. In ten months
Cromwell had re-conquered Ireland for the Parliament, and in the
summer of 1650 he was able to obey the order of the Council to return
to Great Britain, where his services were now greatly needed.
Dunbar and Worcester.
" With the rest of the horse, and nine regiments of foot — most of
them of your old foot and horse — / am hasting up; and shall, by the Lord's
help, use utmost diligence. I hope I haie left a commanding force under
Lieutenant-General Monch in Scotland. This account I thought it my duty
to speed to you ; and rest— Your most humble servant, Oliver Cromwell,"-
Letter from Cromwell to Speaker Lenthall, written from Leith before the battle oj
Worcester, ^th of August, 1651.
Although Parliament had declared that the young Charles Stuart was
not to be called a " king," and had made it high treason to speak of
him as such, the Royalists had never for a moment ceased to think
500 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
and speak of him as Charles the Second. After his father's death, and
after the defeat of his friends in England, the young king had tried
his fortunes in Scotland. At first he met with nothing but disaster.
The Marquis of Montrose had collected a small army, with which he
advanced against the Covenanters. He was, however, defeated, his
army was dispersed, and he himself was taken prisoner. On May
2ist, 1650, he was hanged at Edinburgh as a traitor by his bitter
enemies the Covenanters.
Charles saw that his old friends the Cavaliers were, for the time at
any rate, unable to serve him to any purpose ; he therefore looked
about for new and more powerful allies, and went so far as to enter
into an agreement with the Covenanters, who had so long been his
enemies, and who had sold his father to the English army. He declared
that Montrose had fought without his orders and contrary to his wish,
a declaration which was altogether untrue. He signed the Covenant,
gave a promise that the Scottish Church should be governed according
to its own rules, and that he himself would rule Scotland only with the
consent and by the advice of the Scottish Parliament.
The English Parliament and the Council of State saw that it would
be dangerous to allow this new alliance between the king whom they
had dethroned and the Covenanters to grow any stronger. It was
decided to attack the new enemy at once, and it was in order that he
might take charge of the army which was to invade Scotland that
Cromwell had been recalled from Ireland. Cromwell marched across
the Border in July, 1650, at the head of an army of 16,000 men. The
skill which he had shown as a general in Ireland did not forsake him
in Scotland. On September 3rd he routed the Scottish army at Dunbar,
a town lying on the Firth of Forth, to the south-east of Edinburgh.
Edinburgh itself was taken a few days later, and the danger from
Scotland was at an end for a time.
Cromwell moved northward in order to make sure of the submission
of the counties of Perthshire and Fifeshire ; but as he marched North,
Charles took the opportunity to hasten South, and, to the surprise and
alarm of Parliament, news was received that the king had entered
England and was marching towards London. Cromwell was immedi-
ately ordered to return, and at length overtook the royal army at
Worcester. On September 3rd, 1651, was fought the battle of Worcester,
the last battle of any importance in the Civil War. Once more
Cromwell and his seasoned troops proved victorious, the royal army
was defeated, and Charles was forced to fly, escaping with difficulty
from the close pursuit of his enemies.
The fugitive king had many adventures, and ran many risks of
THE QUARREL WITH THE DUTCH. 501
being taken, and at one time the pursuers came so close that he was
forced to take refuge in the thick branches of an oak tree. Hidden by
the close screen of leaves, he escaped discovery ; and, in after years,
it became the fashion among loyal people to commemorate the king's
escape by wearing an oak leaf or an oak apple on " Oak-apple Day."
At last Charles succeeded, after more than six weeks' wanderings,
in reaching the coast of France in safety.
The Quarrel with the Dutch.
" To be master of the sea is an abridgment of monarchy. "
Bacon's Essays.
Cromwell, the victor of Dunbar and Worcester, was now, beyond all
doubt, master of the three kingdoms. The Irish revolt had been
put down ; Scotland was now quiet under the strong rule of General
Monk, whom Cromwell had left in the country with an army of 5,000
men after the victory of Dunbar. In England all open resistance had
been put an end to by the destruction of the last Royalist army at
Worcester. It was fortunate for England that at this time^ the
Government had fallen into the hands of a strong man, for, although
peace had been restored for the time at home, there soon came an
alarm of danger from abroad.
The kings and princes of Europe looked with fear and dislike upon
the new Commonwealth, or Republic, of England, and the execution
of King Charles I. had shocked and alarmed the friends of royalty
throughout Europe. Moreover, the Royalists who had been compelled
to fly from England to escape the vengeance of the Parliament,
naturally did all they could to turn the governments of foreign
countries against those whom they described as lawless and tyrannical
men and who had now become masters of England.
Even in countries which had generally been friendly to England a
hostile feeling now sprang up. The Dutch were Protestants, and many
a time had the Dutch people received help from the English Pro-
testants in their struggle for liberty. There was still a large party in
Holland who, like the Independents in England, favoured a Republic,
and this party was now on the side of the Parliament. But there was
also a party which was by no means so friendly.
It is not hard to understand the causes which now made many of
the Dutch enemies to the new Commonwealth of England There
were two reasons, very different from one another, both of which led
502
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
to the same result. In the first place, it must not be forgotten that the
family of the Prince of Orange, the most powerful and respected family
in Holland, was related by marriage to the royal family of England.
William II., Prince of Orange, who was at that time Stadtholder, or
Prince of Holland, had married Mary, the daughter of Charles I. and the
sister of Charles II. The young king had spent much of his time at the
Dutch Court at The Hague, and, naturally, the family .of the Prince
of Orange were on the side of the king and opposed to the party who
had put the late king to
death. Here, then, was one
reason why the Dutch — or,
at any rate, some of them
— should be enemies to
the Parliament.
There was, however,
another and a more im-
portant reason. The people
of Holland, living on the
sea and in a country cut up
by broad rivers and by
innumerable canals, were
naturally a race of sailors.
Surrounded by hostile
nations, their only free
outlet to the world was
across the ocean. They
had, therefore, become
great builders of ships, and
in these ships they carried
on not only the trade of
Holland but the trade of
many European countries. The " red, white, and blue " of the
Dutch flag was to be seen in every ocean — in the East Indies, in the
Mediterranean, at the Cape of Good Hope, and off the coast of North
America. Of late, also, Dutch ships and Dutch sailors had been
employed in carrying goods to and from our English ports.
But if the Dutch were a race of sailors, depending for their
prosperity upon commerce and upon the sea, so also were the English.
Since the great discoveries of Elizabeth's time the trade of England
had been growing fast, and English ships had already begun to
compete with Dutch ships for the trade of the East and West Indies
and of America.
GENERAL MONK.
THE FIGHT FOR THE CARRYING TRADE. 503
The Dutch saw with alarm the rise of these formidable rivals, and
their alarm was the greater because English ships of war had always
claimed rights over all other ships in the English Channel, which they
now seemed determined to enforce by arms if necessary. English
ships of war had for centuries claimed the right to compel all foreign
ships to salute them by lowering their topsails whenever they met in
the narrow waters of the English Channel. Sometimes the English
navy had not been strong enough to compel foreign ships to give this
salute, but no English Government had ever failed to claim the right,
and Cromwell was by no means less ready to make the claim than any
king or queen.
The Dutch saw that their trade as the carriers of other people's
goods was threatened, and they were determined to fight rather than
allow it to be taken from them. They refused, moreover, to submit
any longer to the claim of England to compel them to salute. They
saw in such an act a sign of their own weakness, which they would not
allow to continue any longer.
The Fig-ht for the Carrying1 Trade.
"He was the first man who declined the old track and
despised those rules which had long been in practice, to keep his ship and
his men out of danger, which had been held in former times a point of
great ability and circumspection ; as if the principal art requisite in the
captain of a ship had been to be sure to come home safe again. " — Clarendon :
" Character of General Blake.
It was not long before the unfriendliness between England and
Holland, which grew out of the causes which have just been described,
led to open war. The English ambassador sent by the Parliament
was murdered at The Hague, the seat of the Dutch Government.
Parliament, justly offended, showed its anger in words which the
Dutch considered to be insulting, and it was not long before Par-
liament added injury to insult. In October, 1651, it passed the famous
" Navigation Act," which forbade any goods to be brought into
England except in English ships. It was easy to see that this Act
was passed solely for the purpose of doing harm to the Dutch, for the
Dutch were really the only foreign ships which brought merchandise
to England.
The Act, which lasted for many years, was of great importance to
5°4
Iff STORY OF ENGLAND.
England. It helped to destroy the Dutch carrying-trade, and gave to
England by far the largest share of the carrying trade of the world. It
has now been thought right to do away with the Act, and merchandise
may be brought into this country by foreign ships.
There was one part of the Act, however, which some people wish
"GENERAL-AT-SEA" BLAKE.
(From the painting in Greenwich Hospital.)
had never been done away with. This was the part which declared
that every English ship must carry as part of its crew a certain
number of " boys apprenticed to the sea " for a fixed term of years. As
long as this law lasted we were always sure to have a sufficient number
of English sailors to man our ships both in peace and in war. Now,
however, that the " Navigation Act " is no longer law, the practice of
THE FIGHT FOR THE CARRYING TRADE.
505
taking apprentices on British ships has gone out, and in consequence
we find that of the crews of many British ships fifty out of every
hundred are foreigners. This is a great pity, and a very bad thing for
the country.
But the first result of the " Navigation Act " was to make the
Dutch exceedingly angry with England, and this new grievance,
coining on the top of all the others, led to war between the two
countries. Cromwell or-
dered his admirals and
captains to make the
Dutch ships in the
Channel salute the Eng-
lish flag. The Dutch
captains refused to obey
the order, and fighting
at once took place. The
war which followed was
a very fierce one ; for
on both sides there were
very brave and skilful
commanders, good sea-
men, and crews who
showed most dogged
courage in battle.
The Dutch admirals
were Van Tromp and De
Ruyter. Monk and Blake
were the commanders
on the English side.
Both Monk and Blake
were soldiers, and it
seems strange to think
of them taking command of a fleet at sea ; but it was a custom of
the time that soldiers should take command of fleets, and " General
at-Sea " Blake did not fight the less well because he went to sea
in full military uniform, including his top-boots. The navigation and
sailing of the ships were intrusted to " Masters," but the generals
took the lead in the fighting.
For some time it seemed uncertain which side would triumph. Blake
defeated Van Tromp, but shortly afterwards Van Tromp turned the
tables and beat Blake's fleet in a fierce action off the Naze, in Essex.
So complete did the Dutch consider their victory to have been, that
.
NAVAL FLAG OF THE COMMONWEALTH.
(Photographed from the original at Chatham Dockyard.)
506 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Van Tromp actually sailed the Channel with a broom at the masthead
of his ship, as a sign that he had " swept the English from the Channel.'1''
He had, however, boasted too soon. Within a few months Blake
was at him again. A two days' battle was fought off Portland Bill, in
which neither side gained much advantage ; but in the following
month — June, 1653 — an English fleet under Monk and Blake defeated
and nearly destroyed the Dutch fleet under Van Tromp. In July Blake
once more defeated his rival, who fell in the battle. The Dutch could
keep up the struggle no longer, and in the year 1654 they made peace,
admitted the right of the English flag to be saluted, and agreed to the
" Navigation Act."
The End of the Long- Parliament.
"Not a dog barked at their going." — Cromwell (On the Dissohition of the
Long Parliament}.
Now that the Government of the Commonwealth of England had shown
that it was powerful enough to make itself respected, the number of its
enemies abroad grew smaller; and those who had been ready to
threaten, now thought twice before meddling with a power which had
shown itself so strong. But though the Commonwealth of England
was supposed at this time to be governed by Parliament — or, rather,
by the House of Commons, which was all that was left of Parliament —
the real power in the country had gone from the House of Commons
and had fallen into the hands of Cromwell — the " Lord-General,'" as he
was now called.
The House of Commons, indeed, had few friends. The Army disliked
and despised it ; the Royalists, of course, hated it ; and even the
Presbyterians had long since ceased to respect it, or to wish it well.
It had been necessary for the House of Commons to raise heavy taxes,
and this had made it unpopular. It was also said that the members
had used their power for their own advantage.
But, though the House of Commons had many enemies and few
friends, it was not easy to get rid of it. It had been summoned by King
Charles in 1640, and, in the year 1653, had already sat for thirteen
years. The King had been executed, the House of Lords had been
abolished, and there was really no power left which had the right to
dissolve the House of Commons and so put an end to its long life.
The members of the House of Commons knew very well that they
THE END OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 507
were no longer in favour with the country, and they knew, too, that if
they once gave up their seats and allowed a new Parliament to be freely
elected, very few of them would be chosen. They declared at last that
OLIVER CROMWELL.
they would dissolve themselves, and that a new and free Parliament
should be elected ; but as they also declared that the new election was
not to take place for three years, things were not much changed by
their vote. Matters seemed no better than they had been before.
Cromwell saw the difficulty, and understood very well what people
508 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
were thinking. There was no one who by law could dissolve the
Parliament, and yet everyone was anxious that the Parliament should
be dissolved. The Lord-General could not untangle the knot, so he
made up his mind to cut it with the sword. On the zoth of April, 1653.
Cromwell went down to Westminster, taking with him a small number
of old soldiers. He was still, it must be remembered, a member 01
Parliament himself. He left the soldiers outside, went in, and sat
down in his usual place. For a time he listened to the debate. At last
his patience gave way. He called Colonel Harrison to him, and said :
"This is the time; I must do it." Then he took off his hat, and rose
to speak.
His speech was of a kind that the House of Commons had not been
accustomed to. There were fifty-three members present. Cromwell
rated and scolded them like a set of schoolboys in disgrace. He
charged them to their faces with all their faults, with their injustice,
with their self-seeking, with their neglect of the country, and at length,
stepping forward on to the floor of the House and putting on his hat,
cried out: " / will put an end to your prating." He stamped his foot in
anger. " It is not fit that you should sit here any longer" he said ; "you
have sat too long here for any good you have been doing lately ; you shall now
give place to better men" Then, turning to Colonel Harrison, he gave
his order : " Call them in ! "
Prompt and obedient to the word of command, thirty of the general's
old soldiers marched into the House, ready to do exactly what their
officer told them. Then Cromwell, turning fiercely on the members,
began blaming them, one by one, by name for the evil that they had
done. " Corrupt, unjust persons ," he cried, "scandalous to the profession
of the Gospel; how can you be a Parliament for God's people? Depart, 1
say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God — go ! "
On the table of the House of Commons there lay then, -as there does
now, a gilded mace, which is the sign of the House being in session. This
mace is borne before the Speaker when he enters the House, and it is,
as it were, a sign or symbol of the authority and power of the House of
Commons. But Cromwell had made up his mind that this House of
Commons, at any rate, should have no more power or authority. He
went up to the table where the mace lay and lifted it up. " What
shall we do with this bauble P " said he. " Take it away / " and he gave
it to a soldier. The mace is the symbol of the authority of the House
of Commons. The Speaker is the head and chief of the House — the
man in whom it places its confidence and trust. Cromwell had got rid
of the mace ; he now got rid of the Speaker.
The Speaker was Lenthall. We must not forget who Mr. Speaker
//>.V ff/GHNESS THE LORD PROTECTOR. 509
Lenthall was. It was he who, eleven years before, had knelt before
King Charles and declared that he had neither " eyes to see nor tongue
to speak, save as the House directed." But this time the Speaker had
to deal with a very different man from Charles I. At first he declined
to move. " Fetch him down," said Cromwell to Colonel Harrison.
Still Lenthall would not budge. " / will lend you a hand,''' said Colonel
Harrison. It was no use arguing with a soldier with thirty armed men
at his back. Speaker Lenthall came down, and marched out of the
House with the rest of the members. The doors were locked, the
Long Parliament was at an end, and everybody — except the members
who had been turned out — rejoiced to see them depart. " We did
not hear a dog bark at their going," said Cromwell.
The story of the turning-out of the " Rump " of the Long Parliament
has been told here at some length, because it is a very important point
in the history of England.
The Long Parliament had begun its Work honestly, fighting for
justice and freedom. We have seen how its work ended. From being
a protector of freedom, it had become a tyrant. It began by declar-
ing that Parliaments should be held every three years ; it sat without
a break for thirteen years. It dethroned the king, and declared
monarchy to be abolished. It put an end to the House of Lords, and
thought that it had made itself the only power in the land ; but it had
raised up two other powers which were much stronger than itself. It
had raised up the Army, by which it was at last destroyed, and it had
raised up enemies amongst all classes of English people, who had
become disgusted with the violence, the selfishness, and the injustice
of the House of Commons.
His Highness the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth.
"Gentlemen, you are met here on the greatest occasion that, I believe,
England ever saw, having upon your shoulders the interests of three
great nations, with the territories belonging to them."— Cromwell's Speech
to Parliament, 1654.
Cromwell was now the only real power in the country, because he
was head of the Army ; but, beyond being head of the Army, he had
DO real office by law. Nevertheless, he decided to do what he believed
his friends wished him to do — namely, to call another Parliament.
In 1^53 a Parliament was accordingly summoned, but, instead of
being a free Parliament, in which Hi" members were elected by the
510 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
free choice of those who sent them, the members were really chosen out
by Cromwell and his friends, and were mostly taken from the In-
dependent party. One of the members was called by the strange
name of " Praise-God Barebone," and from him the Parliament got the
nickname of " Barebone' s Parliament." It had a very short life, for it
pleased neither Cromwell nor the great majority of the people of
England. It found that it could do so little, that it agreed to dissolve
of its own accord after it had sat only a few months.
Cromwell now decided that he would make himself ruler of Eng-
land in name as well as in fact. In December, 1653, a Proclamation
was issued declaring Cromwell to be "Protector of the Commonwealth."
A council of fifteen members was formed to help him, and orders
were given that a "free" Parliament should be summoned. It
must not be supposed, however, that by a " free Parliament " was
meant one in which Royalists who had taken an open part in the
Civil War were allowed to sit. It was not till much later that those
who had fought for the king were allowed to take their places once
more in the House of Commons.
Cromwell opened the Parliament (September, 1654) as if he had
been king, and he quickly made it clear to the House of Commons
that, though they were "free" in name, they were not free in fact,
and that if they did not do very much as he bade them he would do
just what King Charles had done in past times and dissolve them. He
soon found the House of Commons troublesome, and in five months he
carried out his threat and did dissolve them.
Cromwell was now once more sole ruler of the country, and the
orders which he gave actually became laws, as if the Lord Protector
of England were some Eastern king or sultan whose will was law
throughout his dominions. But great power seldom brings with it
great happiness. A Roman emperor once said that he wished all
Romans had but one neck, in order that he might destroy them all
at one blow. The Roman emperor could not gratify his wish ; his
enemies were many, and he was but one man.
In England in the time of the Commonwealth matters were
reversed. The enemies of the new Government were many, and
belonged to every party. At last they saw all the power of the State
in the hands of one man — Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector — and
they knew that the life of this one man was the only thing that stood
between them and the overthrow of the Government. It was natural,'
therefore, that the enemies of the Commonwealth should have tried
their best to rid themselves of the one life which interfered with their
plans, and that plots were made against Cromwell both by Royalists
His HIGHNESS THE LORD PROTECTOR. 511
and by the most violent members of the Independent party, who
believed that he had deserted their cause. The plots were discovered,
and the plotters were either put to death or were compelled to fly the
country ; but the danger was clear to all men, and to no one was it
more clear than to Cromwell himself.
The Protector felt that unless he had friends in every part of the
country whom he could trust, his government would never be safe. He
therefore turned to those who he knew were his best friends because
their welfare depended upon his own. He turned to the Officers of the
Army. In the year 1655 twelve of the Major-Generals, or principal
officers of the Army, were appointed to govern twelve different districts
into which England 'was divided, and thus the country was ruled by
soldiers commanded by a soldier, without either king or Parliament.
For a time the government of the Major-Generals was strong enough
to bring peace at home, and Cromwell was able to turn his attention
to matters abroad. The Protestants in Piedmont, in the north of Italy,
were being persecuted by the Duke of Savoy. Cromwell wrote to
Cardinal Mazarin, chief minister of the King of France, and declared
that if he allowed the Protestants of Piedmont to be persecuted
England would be no friend to France. Mazarin was at that time
very anxious to get the help of England against Spain. He therefore
consented to interfere and save the persecuted Protestants from
destruction. It was of this persecution that the great poet Milton
wrote the famous lines : —
" Avenge, O Lord ! Thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones
Lie scatter'd on the Alpine mountains cold ;
Even them who kept Thy truth so pure of old,
When all our fathers worshipp'd stocks and stones,
Forget not : in Thy book record their groans
Who were Thy sheep, and in their ancient fold
Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that roll'd
Mother with the infant down the rocks. . . .
Nor was Cromwell content with helping the Protestants. It was
not long before he made war upon their chief enemies, the Spaniards.
War was declared in 1656. The English troops were defeated when
they landed on the mainland of South America, but the fleet succeeded
in taking the great island of Jamaica, which has been held as a British
colony ever since. Blake also added another to the list of his victories
by defeating the Spanish fleet, which was bringing a great convoy of
treasure from the River Plate. The treasure-ships were taken, and
thirty-eight waggons were required to bring the gold and silver from
512 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Portsmouth to London. The success of the country abroad had been
so great that Cromwell now ventured to do away with the government
by the Major-Generals and, for the third time, summon a Parliament.
The End of the Commonwealthu
" You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse : was this ambition ? "
Shakespeare : "Julius Ccesar" Act III., Scene 2.
We have said that a Parliament was summoned, but it must not
be forgotten that the Parliament of this time meant the House of
Commons only. There was no King, and there was no House of Lords.
It appeared to many that the time had come when it would be a good
thing if England could once more have a King and a House of Lords.
Cromwell himself was one of those who wished to see the House of
Lords set up again. He thought that if the House of Commons were
able to make laws without anyone to check or interfere with it, the
welfare of the country would be endangered. Accordingly, in the year
1657, he decided there should be again Two Houses of Parliament
instead of one, and he appointed a number of his friends members
of the new House of Lords.
It is probable that Cromwell would himself have liked not only to
have made a new House of Lords, but to have made a new king, and
that he was quite willing to be that king if he could have accepted the
crown without danger. However this may be, it is certain that some
of his friends went so far as to propose that he should be called
" King " ; and had it not been that the officers of the Army were
jealous of his taking such a title, it seems very likely that England
would have had a " King Oliver."
But Cromwell was, no doubt, wise in refusing to be called king,
especially as he already had more power than many Kings of England
had claimed or possessed. Although the plots against him continued,
he was still able to put down all his enemies, and when the House of
Commons ventured to oppose him he at once dissolved it (February
4th, 1658).
Cromwell had now only a few months to live, and during those few
months he reigned without a Parliament as an absolute sovereign.
Whatever we may think of him, it is certain that at this period he had
THE END OF THE COMMONWEALTH. ^[^
made England more powerful and -respected among foreign nations
than it had been for many years past. His friends were proud of his
friendship, and his enemies were afraid to raise their hand against a.
man who had showed himself so strong both at home and abroad.
Never was Oliver Cromwell more powerful and more respected than
at the time of his death.
It was on the 3rd of September, 1658— the anniversary of the battles
of Dunbar and Worcester— that the great Protector died, leaving behind
him a name which all Englishmen, whether they be friends or enemies,
must always think of as that of a great man. With Cromwell, the reai
power of the Commonwealth came to an end immediately.
His son, Richard Cromwell, succeeded to his office as Lord Protector,
and everyone seemed to think it a natural thing that he should do so,
but it was very soon seen that there was a vast difference between
father and son. The officers of the Army, who had followed the father
to victory in many a fierce fight, despised the son, and had no
intention of being ruled by him. " Dick Cromwell " was neither a
king nor a soldier, but only a quiet country gentleman. Nobody
wanted him, and, indeed, it is only fair to say of Richard Cromwell
that he aid not himself wish to cling to his office if he were not
wanted. A Parliament was called on January zyth, 1659, but was
dissolved again in three months.
Nothing had been done for the Army, and the Army was deter-
mined that it should not be forgotten. Then a strange step was taken.
The soldiers thought that it would be a good thing to have a Parlia-
ment if the Parliament would do exactly what it was ordered to do.
No " Free Parliament " would take orders from the Army, but it was
thought that the old members of the " Rump " of the Long Parliament
would do anything they were ordered to do, if only they were called
back again to their seats in the House of Commons. The proposal
was carried out, and forty-two members of the Long Parliament, with
Speaker Lenthall at their head, were brought back from all parts of
the country and started once more under the name of the House of
Commons.
Even now, however, the soldiers found out that they had not got
quite what they wanted, for even the Rump Parliament would not
consent to take their orders, and, indeed,' went so far as to try and
interfere with the Army and its officers.
And now, at last, when their greatest enemy was dead, and wh;\i
the Army and the Parliament were quarrelling between themselves, the
Royalists once more began to hold up their heads and to hope for
success. What they had never been able to win by force of arms
R
514 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
they now thought they might gain from the weariness and disgust of
their enemies with the very power which they themselves had set up.
The people of England had got rid of the king, not because they hated
kings, but because they would not put up with a king who oppressed
them and broke the law. Now that they found that a Parliament
ruling without a king meant government by the Army, and oppression
and law-breaking into the bargain, they were quite ready to go back to
the old arrangements, and to try government by King, Lords, and
Commons once more.
The Restoration.
' There is noe hope of a peace, or the war to cease,
Jill the king enjoyes his right againe.
" . . I can tell that all things will goe well
When the king enjoyes his rights againe. " — Cavalier Song.
How the old government came back is soon told. When we spoke
of Cromwell's march into England before the battle of Worcester, we
said that General Monk had been left behind in Scotland to keep that
country in order. General Monk had not only kept Scotland in order,
but he had kept his own army in very good order also. He saw that
the government in London was weak, and he knew that with an army
behind him which would obey his orders he could become master of
London.
On the ist of January, 1660, he crossed the Border into England,
and marched southwards towards the capital. At first the " Rump "
Parliament claimed him as their friend, but Monk was a wise man,
and knew that the hearts of the English people were not with the
" Rump " Parliament. He marched into the city of London, and was
received in triumph by the people. He called together the Common
Council of the city, and declared that he was in favour of a " Free
Parliament.''1
Then everybody knew that at last the Long Parliament was at an
end for ever. A " Free " Parliament was elected, and for the first time
for many years the views of moderate men on both sides were heard in
the House of Commons. The moderate men were all agreed. It was
time to call the king back again ; there was no other way in which
peace and quiet could be secured to the country.
516 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
A message was sent to Charle-s in Holland. He agreed to the terms
which the Parliament proposed, and Monk promised to support him.
On the 26th of May, 1660, Charles landed at Dover, and was received with
every sign of joy by the people of England. The Independents and
Cromwell's old soldiers hung their heads and grieved over this strange
turn of fortune, but Englishmen, as a rule, felt that a great weight had
been lifted off the country, and that it was a happy day which put an
end to the government by a tyrannical Parliament, supported by a
victorious army.
CHAPTER LVI.
CHARLES II.
1660-1685.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES II.
Charles II., King of England, son of Charles
I. and Henrietta Maria, b. 1630, suc-
ceeded to the Crown 1649, became
king 1660. d. 1685.
Catherine of Braganza, daughter of J hn,
King of Portugal, wife of Charles II.,
m. 1662.
James, Duke of York, son of Charles I.,
brother of Charles II., afterwards
King of England.
Anne Hyde, daughter of the Earl of Claren-
don, first wife of James, Duke of York,
m. 1660, d. 1671.
Mary, daughter of James and Anne, b. 1662,
afterwards Queen of England.
Anne, daughter of James and Anne, b. 1664,
afterwards Queen of England.
Louis XIV., King of France.
Philip IV., King of Spain, d. if 65.
Charles II., King of Spain.
Leopold I., Emperor.
Alexander VII., Pope, d. 1667.
Clement IX., Pope, d. 1670.
Clement X., Pope, d. 1676.
Innocent XI., Pope.
William Henry, Stadtholder of Holland
1672, afterwards King of England.
Frederick William (" the Great Elector "),
Elector of Brandenburg 1640 to
• 1688.
General George Monk, Duke of Albema-le,
d. 1670.
James, Duke of Monmouth.
Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, d. 1674.
Lord Clifford, d. 1673. \ "3 ^
The Earl of Arlington, d. 1685. ^ £
The Duke of Buckingham. vu.|
Ashley, Earl of Shaftesbury, d. 1683. * -J
The Duke of Lauderdale, d. 1682. } ^
Prince Rupert, cousin to Charles II., d. 1682.
TitUS Gates, author of Oates's Plot
De Ruyter, Dutch Admiral, d. 1676.
Cornelius Van Tromp, Dutch Admiral.
Sir Isaac Newton, b. 1642.
Sir Christopher Wren, architect of St.
Paul's Cathedral, b. 1632.
Great Writers :—
Abraham Cowley, d. 1667.
Samuel Butler, d. 1680.
John Milton, d. 1674.
John Bunyan.
John Dryden.
Robert Herrick, d. 1674.
William Wycherley, dramatist.
Bishop Bumet, historian.
Samuel Pepys.
John Evelyn.
Famous French Writers :—
Moliere, d. 1673-
Corneille, d. 1684.
Boileau.
Racine.
Great Painters :—
Cuyp, Dutch, d. 1672.
Rembrandt, Dutch, d. 1674.
Sir Peter Lely, German, d. 1680.
MuiillO, Spanish, d. 1685.
A FAIR BEGINNING.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF CHARLES II.
1660. Restoration of Charles II.
Tea used as a drink in London.
1661. The name of New Amsterdam, in
America, changed to that of New
York.
Chirles crowned and Parliament as-
sembled.
Cardinal Mazarin dies.
1662. Act of Uniformity comes into force.
Marriage of Charles to Catherine of
Braganza.
1664. War with Holhnd.
1*65. The Plague of London.
1660. War between England and France.
Naval actions with the Dutch.
Fire of London.
1667. De Ruyter burns English ships in the
Medway.
Milton publishes "Paradise Lost."
1670. The "Cabal" formed.
1672. Naval battle at Sale Bay.
1673. Test Act passed.
1674. Peace with Holland and France.
1675. Rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral
begun.
1677. William, Prince of Orange, m. Princess
Mary.
1679. Terms "Whig" and "Tory" intro-
duced.
Habeas Corpus Act passed.
1(81. James, Duke of York, excluded from
office.
1683. The Rye House P!ot. Execution of
Russell and Sidney.
Princess Anae m. Prince George of
Denmark.
1684. Tangier abandoned by the English.
1685. Charles II. dies.
A Fair Beginning-.
"Although for a time you see Whitehall
With cobwebbs hanging on the wall
Insteed of silhes and siluer braue
Which {formerly 't was wont to haue,
With a sweete perfume in euerye roome
Delightfull to that princely traine ;
Which againe shal be when the times you see
That the king enjoyes his right againe. " — Cavalier Song.
" The king had got his own again." It now remained to be seen
whether all would really be well. There can be no doubt that the
great majority of the people of England were truly glad of the
"Restoration." Many of them were fond of the old Constitution of
England, and though they had taken sides against the king, had been
sorry that they were compelled to do so, and would gladly have come
to some reasonable agreement long ago. All classes had become tired
of being governed by the Army. The faults of Charles I. were for-
gotten by men who had seen so many acts of violence done since his
death. The dead king was now an object of pity and regret rather
than of hatred, and the country was ready to welcome the young king
all the more warmly because it knew so little about him.
There was, therefore, real joy throughout the land when the king
came back; but scarcely had the bonfires gone out and the bells
ceased ringing when it was seen that there were still great difficulties
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
to be got over before peace and contentment could be restored to the
country.
None of the Stuarts were wise kings, and Charles II.<83) was no
exception to the rule. Luckily, however, he had learnt something
while he was in exile. . He had himself suffered so much that he was
a great deal more anxious to enjoy himself now that he had recovered
the throne than to stir
up new troubles in the
country. This was
fortunate, for there
were many Royalists
who would have been
only too glad to take
vengeance upon their
enemies and pay off
old scores now that
they had the power.
General Monk, how-
ever, was the king's
most powerful minis-
ter, and General Monk
naturally did not wish
to see his old friends
persecuted. Still, it
proved impossible to
prevent the Cavaliers,
who had now come
back as members of
Parliament, from
punishing those who
had been actually
concerned in the
death of Charles I.
Ten of the " Regi-
cides"1 were put to death, and many others were imprisoned or
driven into exile. The bodies of Cromwell and Bradshaw were
taken from their graves *n Westminster Abbey, and, in a fit of
foolish and unworthy spite, were hanged at Tyburn, and then burned.
But this was the worst that was done at this time, and, for the
most part, those who had been in arms against the king in the late
CHARLES II.
(From the mezzotint by G. R. Williams, aftet
Sir Godfrey Kneller.}
1 Regicides, "killers of the king" — from the Latin rex (genitive regis), "a king," and
caedere, " to kill."
THE LANDING OF CHARLES II. AT DOVER.
520 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
war were pardoned. Richard Cromwell, who had succeeded in escaping
to the Continent, was soon forgotten. If he had few friends, he also
had few enemies ; and, when he returned to England twenty years
later, he was allowed to live peaceably to the end of his long life. He
died in 1712, at the age of eighty-six.
The Established Church was set up again, and Juxon, who had been
with Charles I. at his death, went back to Lambeth as Archbishop of
Canterbury. Edward Hyde (Lord Clarendon) became the king's chief
minister. Parliament was summoned in the first year of the king's
reign. It was agreed that the king should give up some of the old
rights of the Crown to levy money, and in exchange large supplies were
voted amounting to ,£1,200,000. Tunnage and Poundage — which, as we
know, Parliament had refused to grant Charles I. — were now granted
to his son for his life.
One other very important thing was done by this Parliament. For
the first time the king was allowed to keep up a force of regular
soldiers in time of peace. Two regiments — now known as the " Eoyal
Scots " and the " Coldstream Guards " — were kept up after the rest of the
army had been disbanded, and the House of Commons agreed to find
the money to pay them. We shall see that before long the question of
the king's right to keep up a "Standing Army" in time of peace
became a very important one, and led to most serious differences.
The Dutch in the Medway; or, England Disgraced.
"The alarme was so greate that it put both Country and Citty into a
paniq feare and consternation, such as I hope as I shall never see more ;
. . . . A dreadful spectacle as ever Englishmen saw, and a dishonour
never to be wiped off! Those who advised his Majesty to prepare no
Fleete this Spring deseru'd—l know what— but" — John Evelyn: "Diary,"
June, 1667.
Parliament was now dissolved, and in the following year a fresh
Parliament was summoned. The majority of the new Parliament were
Cavaliers, and they did far more to interfere with the peaceful ar-
rangements which had been come to than the Parliament of the year
before.
Urged on by his ministers, and especially by the Earl of Lauderdale
— a Scotsman who was full of bitterness against the Scottish Coven-
anters—Charles now ventured to do what his father had tried in vain
522 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
to do before him, namely, to set up the English Established Church in
Scotland. Those who opposed him met with no mercy from Lauder-
dale ; and the Earl of Argyle, who was the chief of the Covenanters,
was taken prisoner, tried, and executed for resisting the royal will.
An Act of Parliament was passed in the year 1662 which was
called the Act of Uniformity. It ordered the use of the Prayer- Book in
every church in England, and it compelled every clergyman to make a
public declaration, saying that he agreed with the form of service used
in the Prayer- Book, that he was against the Covenant, and that he
believed it to be wrong and unlawful to take up arms against the king
on any pretext whatsoever. No less
than 2,000 ministers refused to make
this declaration, and were turned out
of their livings in consequence.
Already the English Independents
and all those English Protestants who
did not agree with the Established
Church, and who were known as
" Nonconformists,'" began to fear that
the new king was going to prove as
great a tyrant as his father, and their
alarm was increased when the laws
against them were put in force with
HALF-CROWN OF CHARLES ii. great severity and cruelty. Indeed,
if Charles had proved as obstinate
as his father, there is little doubt that civil war would have begun
over again, for Clarendon, his minister, actually went so far as to
imprison Nonconformists for refusing to use the same form of service
which was used in the Established Church ; and an Act called the
" Five Mile Act " was passed which forbade clergymen to teach in
schools or to come within five miles of a town unless they had declared
in writing that they would agree to the rules of the Established
Church, and promise to obey the king and the bishops without
question.
But Charles, though he liked to exercise his power as a king as
much as his father had done, was not prepared to risk losing his head
in order to get his way. And thus, though there was much discontent
on the part of the Nonconformists, matters never went so far as to
bring about a rebellion.
But if Charles's policy at home were foolish and unjust, his policy
abroad was still more foolish and more disastrous to the country,
France at this time was growing fast in power and influence under its
THE DUTCH IN THE MED WAY. 523
young king, Louis XIV., and already the French were looking with
covetous eyes upon the rich territory of Holland, which lay upon their
north-eastern borders. Charles and his ministers were unable to see
that the great military power of France, which already threatened
Holland, would soon be directed against England, and that Louis
would be all the stronger when he had defeated the sturdy Dutch
Protestants and become master of the Dutch fleet and the Dutch
harbours. It was a great mistake which led Charles at this time to pick
a quarrel with Holland, but when once the mistake was made it was
impossible to go back, and war was declared in the beginning of 1665.
But if it were a great mistake to declare war with the Dutch, it was
a still greater mistake to declare war at a time when the country was
quite unprepared to carry it on with success. The English fleet, ill-
equipped and insufficient in numbers, put to sea under the command
of Monk, who had been made Duke of Albemarle. A battle took place
in the Downs within full view of the English coast, and our fleet was
badly beaten by the Dutch admirals De Witt and De Euyter.
King Louis, better advised than King Charles, saw his opportunity
in this quarrel between the two Protestant nations, -and he was only
too anxious that it should continue. At first he had appeared to
favour the Dutch, but he now came out in his true colours as an
enemy who only awaited his opportunity to conquer their country. In
order that he might carry on his own wars without interference, he
bribed both Charles and his ministers with large sums of money.
It is hard to think of a more disgraceful condition than that into
which the Government of England had fallen at this time. The king
and his chief ministers were actually in the pay of the King of France ;
and, not content with so shameful an act as taking foreign money, they
did not even spend what they received upon the service of the country,
but wasted it upon their own pleasures and luxuries.
Meanwhile the Navy was allowed to go to rack and ruin. Money
which should have been spent on stores, shipbuilding, and repairs, was
squandered by the courtiers. The sailors received no pay, and the
ships were unfit to go to sea. The height of our disgrace was reached
in the year 1667, when a Dutch fleet sailed without opposition into
the mouth of the Thames, passed up the Medway to Chatham, and
burnt our English ships of war in the very heart of Kent. Not for
many a year had England fallen so low as this, and Englishmen felt
the shame all the more keenly because they knew that the country
which only a few years ago under Cromwell's rule had been mistress
of the sea, was still rich enough, strong enough, and brave enough to
protect its own coasts if only it were honestly governed.
524 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Pestilence and Fire.
" The pestilence that walheth in darkness ; . . . the destruction that
wasteth at noonday, "—Psalm xci. 6.
" We saw the fire as only one entire arch of fire from this to the other
side the bridge, and in a bow up the hill for an arch of above a mile long ; it
made me weep to see it." — " Pepys' Diary," September 2nd, 1666.
The bad management and extravagance of the Court, and the
disasters which followed, naturally turned men's minds against the
king, and still more against his minister, the Earl of Clarendon. Other
misfortunes, too, besides our defeats at sea and the mistakes of the
ministers at home had overtaken the country, and had fallen with
special weight upon the city of London. In 1665 a terrible plague
broke out in London. The disease had already become known in this
country, and many lives had been lost through it ; but it was not till
the year named that it reached the terrible height which has made the
year 1665 so black a one in the annals of London.
It was in the month of May that the plague broke out in its full
fury, and as the summer came on its ravages spread more widely
every day. The disease was one which is now, happily, almost
unknown in the United Kingdom. It is a disease which springs from
dirt, bad drainage, close streets, and unhealthy air. In these days we
have learnt how to fight against it by making proper drains, using
plenty of fresh water, and by letting fresh air even into the darksst
corners of our great cities.
But the plague is still known in other countries, and as late as
the year 1894 a terrible outbreak took place in the British colony of
Hong- Kong. Fortunately, the English -Government of the colony was
able to use the same wise measures which have proved so great a
protection in this country, and by cleanliness, good doctoring, and wise
nursing, the plague in Hong- Kong was stopped, though not before
five hundred persons had lost their lives. In the year 1897 a ^ill-
worse outbreak of the plague took place, and the disease raged with
fury in the great city of Bombay. Here again, however, cleanliness
and good doctoring got the better of it, and a calamity such as that
which overtook London in 1665 was averted.
But in London in the year 1665 everything favoured the disease.
The streets were narrow and dirty, the people had not learnt the value.
PESTILENCE AND FIRE. 525
of cleanliness, the summer was particularly hot and dry, and the
plague spread with terrible rapidity. In most of the cases those who
were attacked suffered from boils or swellings in the joints, and so
rapid was the progress of the malady that men and women fell down
as they walked in the streets, and died in a few hours.
The alarm was terrible. Thousands of people fled into the country,
and carried the plague with them into the villages. " Dead carts"
went from house to house, carrying the bodies to the great pits, into
which they were thrown ; fires were lit in the streets, in the hope of
purifying the air. London seemed like a city of the dead. On the
door of every house which the plague had visited was painted a red
cross, and under it were written the words : " The Lord have mercy
upon us."
King Charles and the Court removed from Whitehall to Salis-
bury, and thence to Oxford. Nearly all of those who could afford
to do so fled from the plague-stricken city in the hope of finding
safety in the country. At last, however, towards the end of the
year, the plague abated, but not till 100,000 people had perished.
As many as 8,000 had died in a single week.
Scarcely had the plague ceased when another misfortune overtook
the city of London. In 1666, the year in which De Ruyter beat our
fleet in the Downs, a great fire swept over London. It broke out on
the night of the 2nd of September, in "Pudding Lane," in the City.
For five days it raged furiously, and the wooden houses, of which
there were many in all the streets, burned like furnaces. From the
centre of the City to Temple Bar there was one sheet of flame. At
last the fire was stopped by blowing up a number of houses with
gunpowder ; but not before 13,000 houses and eighty-nine churches had
been burnt to the ground.
The people believed that the Plague and the Fire had been sent as
judgments upon the country, to punish it for the wickedness of the
Court. It was not wonderful that the chief minister of the Court, the
Earl of Clarendon, should have been the first to feel the anger of the
people. He was impeached on a charge of high treason in October,
1667, and only succeeded in saving his life by a hasty flight from the
country.
5 26 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The "Cabal"— The Test Act— " Habeas Corpus."
" The Archbishop of Canterbury is called no more to the Cabal, nor, by-
the-way, Sir W. Coventry ; which I am sorry for, the Cabal at present being,
as he says, the king, and the Duke of Buckingham, and Lord Keeper, the
Duke of Albemarle, and Privy Seal." — " Pepys' Diary," December 2 is/, 1667.
Charles now had to find new ministers to take the place of
Clarendon. He chose as counsellors Lord Clifford and the Earl of
Arlington, who were Roman Catholics, and the Duke of Buckingham,
Ashley (afterwards Lord Shaftesbury), and the Earl of Lauderdale. The
new Government got the name of " The Cabal," because the initial
letters of the names of its members spelt the word " cabal ''-
Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, Lauderdale.1 From the time
of the " Cabal " Ministry the government of England has always
been carried on by a small council -chosen from amongst the ministers
of the Crown. This Council became known before long as the
" Cabinet Council," a name which it has kept till the present day.
The fact that Charles had taken two Roman Catholics into his
Council gave rise to much alarm. The great majority of the people
of England were Protestants, who feared the Roman Catholic King of
France, and who wished to be friends with Protestant Holland. The
king himself declared that he belonged to the Protestant Established .
Church, but many suspected that he was at heart, if not a Roman
Catholic, at any rate a friend of the Roman Catholics. The queen
(Catherine of Braganza, daughter of the King of Portugal) was a Roman
Catholic, and so was the king's brother, James, Duke of York. More-
over, Charles had no love for the Dutch, many of whom were
Republicans. He found his real friend in Louis XIV., who paid him
large sums, which Charles spent upon his pleasures, and who was fast
making himself an absolute monarch in France.
It is not wonderful that with these differences between king and
people, the reign of Charles II., which had begun so happily, should
have ended in strife and disaster. The " Cabal " governed no better
than Clarendon had done. Charles, with the advice of his ministers,
not only entered into an alliance with Louis of France, but actually
began a second war against the Dutch. The fighting at sea was, as
1 Cabal is really a Hebrew word. It had already been used to describe a plot or conspiracy,
and was now applied to the " council of five " which has been mentioned above.
THE " CABAL"— THE TEST ACT — "HABEAS CORPUS" 527
usual, very obstinate. The Duke of York himself commanded the
English ships, and he and De Ruyter carried on a fierce struggle in the
Channel. James, Duke of York, was justly detested by the people
of England when he became king under the title of James II., but it
must be remembered, to his credit, that he was -a good seaman, and
that he freely risked his life at sea in the battles with the Dutch.
The alliance with France and the war with Holland were not the
only things which made Charles unpopular. In 1673 he issued a
"Declaration of Indulgence" in which he pardoned a great many of
those who had offended against the Act of Uniformity. It was a right
thing to wish to pardon these men, but Parliament declared that,
whether it were a right thing or not, it was done in the wrong way,
and that the king had no right to set aside the law even for a good
purpose. Charles was compelled to withdraw the Declaration.
Parliament now showed that it was determined not to allow the
king to favour the Roman Catholics. An Act called the Test Act
was passed (1673). By this Act anyone who held any office in the
State was compelled to declare himself a member of the Established
Church. If he did not do this, he had to give up his office. Two of
the king's ministers, Clifford and Arlington, were, as we know, Roman
Catholics. They were compelled to give up their offices, and the
" Cabal" Government came to an end.
Sir Thomas Osborne, afterwards Lord Danby, was made chief minister.
Charles was compelled to make peace with Holland, and, despite
his wish to remain good friends with Louis, was very nearly forced
into declaring war upon France in order to please Parliament and the
people. Louis, however, sent an enormous bribe to Charles, which
enabled the latter to dissolve Parliament and put off the danger for
a time.
In the year 1677 an important event took place, namely the
marriage of the heiress to the throne. James, Duke of York,*86' had
married Anne Hyde,(87) daughter of the Earl of Clarendon. James had
two daughters, Mary(92) and Anne,(93) and in this year Mary, the elder,
was married to the Prince of Orange, (85) the chief of the Protestant party
in Holland and the bitter enemy of Louis XIV. of France. Once more
the country hoped that there would be war with France, and once
more Charles was bribed into making a secret agreement with Louis.
The secret was found out, and Danby, who was said to have advised
the king, was fiercely attacked by the Parliament which Charles had
been compelled to summon in 1679, and would have been executed had
not the king pardoned him.
It was in this year (1679) that the famous "Habeas Corpus" Act
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
was passed. This was an Act the object of which was to protect
persons from illegal imprisonment and to make sure that no man
should be kept in prison unless he had first been fairly tried and
found guilty.
The Act provided that any person who for any cause whatever had
been put in prison, might, as a matter of absolute right, demand from
a judge or magistrate a " Writ of Habeas Corpus" or order to the
person who kept him in
prison, ordering such per-
son to bring his prisoner
up for trial at once, so
that if guilty he might be
punished and if innocent
be set free. Any judge or
magistrate who had the
right to give a Writ of
Habeas Corpus when asked
to do so, and who refused,
was liable to be punished,
and to be heavily fined, and
the same punishment befell
any person who under any
pretence whatever kept a
prisoner in gaol and refused
to produce him for trial
when he received a Writ
of Habeas Corpus. The
name " Habeas Corpus " is
THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH. taken from the two Latin
words at the beginning of
the Writ order, and which mean " Take the Body." If we look on, to
page 574 of this book, we shall find something more about this famous
Act, which has always been justly considered one of the greatest
defences of our liberties.
The Protestants now began seriously to fear lest the king should
make friends with the Roman Catholics ; and many believed that, even
if the king did not do so, the Roman Catholics would try to make
his brother James king in his stead. The belief was strengthened
by the discovery of a real or pretended plot which was revealed by a
man named Titus Gates. The object of the plot, he said, was to
murder the king and destroy the Protestant religion.
It is certain that the greater part, if not the whole, of Oates's story
" THE RYE HOUSE PLOT" 529
was untrue ; but enough had been said to raise the fears of the
Protestants, and many Roman Catholics were imprisoned. The Duke
of York himself, the king's brother, was compelled to give up his
office as Lord High Admiral. The Duke of Momnouth, a son of Charles,
was now looked upon by many as the true Protestant heir to the
throne. He had no right to come to the throne, for the king had not
been married to his mother ; but he was a Protestant, and the
Protestants declared that they would make him king rather than
allow the Roman Catholic Duke of York to be king.
But the friends of Monmouth went too far. They tried to drive
the Duke of York from the kingdom, and this the king would not
permit. Nor were the people of England, as a rule, ready to allow a
man to come to the throne who had no real right to succeed. But all
these quarrels and disputes naturally divided the country more and
more into two parties. Some of the Protestant party were in their
turn accused of a plot known as " The Rye House Plot," the objects of
which were said to be the murder of the king and the setting up of a
Republic. Three well-known men— Lord William Russell, the Earl of
Essex, and Algernon Sidney — were charged with having taken part in
the plot. Russell and Sidney were beheaded ; Essex died or was killed
in prison.
This severe treatment of the leaders of the Protestant party
strengthened the king's power for the time. The Duke of York was put
back into his office as Lord High Admiral contrary to the law, the
government was carried on without the aid of Parliament, and friendly
messages were sent to Louis XIV. At last it seemed as if Charles,
more fortunate than his father, had succeeded in making himself an
absolute king, but he did not live to enjoy his success. He died on
the 6th of February, 1685, declaring on his deathbed that he was a
Roman Catholic, and thus adding one more proof to the many which he
had given during his reign of the falseness of his conduct to his people.
Little is to be said in favour of Charles, but he had one great
piece of good fortune : he was not a good king, but the people
of England disliked his rule less than that of the Roundhead
soldiers who had governed the country before him and less
than that of the Roman Catholic .king who was to succeed him. A
story is told of Charles and the Duke of York. The king and his
brother were walking together. James asked the king if he were not
afraid of being assassinated. The king smiled. " No, no, Jamie,"
said he ; " they'll never kill me to make you king." Charles was
right ; the people of England did not love him, but they soon learnt
to hate his brother.
530
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
CHAPTER LVII.
JAMES II. AND THE END OF ABSOLUTE MONARCHY IN
ENGLAND.
1685-1688.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF JAMES II,
James II., King of England, son of Charles I.
and Henrietta Maria, brother of
Charles II., b. 1633, became king
1685, deposed 1688, d. 1701.
Mary Of Modena, second wife of James II.
Mary, daughter of James II. and Anne
Hyde, b. 1662, arterwards Queen of
England.
Anne, daughter of James II. and Anne
Hyde, b. 1664, afterwards Queen of
England.
James Edward, son of James II. and
Mary ol Modena, known as the "Old
Pretender," b. 1688.
William, Stadtholder of Holland, husband of
Mary, afterwards King of England.
George Of Denmark, husband of Anne.
LOUIS XIV., King of France.
Charles II., King of Spain.
Leopold I., Emperor.
Frederick William, Elector of Branden
burg ("the Great Elector "), d. 1688.
Peter the Great, Czar of Russia, 1682.
Innocent XL, Pope.
The Duke of Monmouth, executed 1685.
Judge Jeffreys, Chanrellor.
The Earl of Argyle, executed 1685.
John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough.
Richard TalbOt, Earl of Tyrconnel.
Ministers of James II. :—
Henry Hyde, Harl of Clarendon.
Robert Spencer, Earl of Sunderland.
Lawrence Hyde, Earl of Rochester.
For PAINTERS and WRITERS see lists in the
previous and succeeding reigns.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING
1685. James II. becomes king.
Meeting of Parliament.
June ii, Duke of Monmouth lands at
Lyme Regis.
June 17, Earl of Argyle defeated.
June 30. Earl of Argyle executed.
July 6, Battle of Sedgemoor.
July 15, Monmouth executed.
Oct. 22, Revocation of the Edict of
Nantes by Louis XIV.
1686. Roman Catholics appointed to offices in
the Army and Government.
1687. Parliament dissolved.
The Declaration of Indulgence.
THE REIGN OF JAMES II.
1687. James quarrels with the University of
Cambridge.
Sir Isaac Newton's great book, the
" Principia," published.
1688. June 10, birth of James, known as the
" Old Pretender."
June 29, acquittal of the Seven Bishops.
Nov. 5, William of Orange lands at
1689.
Torbay.
Dec., William of Orange assumes the
government.
Th
he Houses declare the throne vacant
and proclaim William and Mary
joint-sovereigns.
A Bad Beginning1.
'It was worse than a crime; it was a blunder."
WE said in the last chapter that the people of England soon learnt to
hate their new king, James II., more than they had ever hated his
brother Charles. It must not be supposed, however, that because
James was more hated than his brother he was necessarily a worse
A BAD BEGINNING.
man. Charles was careless, indolent, fond of pleasure, and self-
indulgent.
These were not the faults of his brother. James was a man of
courage and activity, as he showed when he fought ship to ship with
the Dutch. He had very clear views as to what he thought was right,
and was ready to risk everything in order to make his own views
prevail. Few
kings have been
so unfortunate as
he in governing
England, and
few showed so
little wisdom in
their dealings
with the people
of England, but
it is fair to say
of King James
that he suffered
far more for his
mistakes than
for his crimes.
He was neither
a great ntan nor
a wise man, but
it is impossible
not to feel some
respect for a
man who was
ready to take
any risks rather
than give up his
own ideas of
what was right.
But whatever can be said of the courage and earnestness of James,
it must be confessed that when he tried to govern England in a fashion
which he thought right, but which the people of England had long ago
made up their minds was altogether wrong, he attempted an impossible
task.
The king was a Roman Catholic; nine-tenths of his subjects were
Protestants. The king looked upon Louis of France as his natural friend
and ally ; his people regarded Louis with fear and mistrust as their
JAMES II
(After the fainting by Sir Godfrey Kneller.)
532 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
natural enemy. James believed in his heart in the " doctrine of Divine
Right'" — that kings were chosen by God to govern their people, and
that the people committed a sin if they disobeyed the chosen of God.
The people of England, on the contrary, had long ago made up their
minds that the Kings of England could, and should, only rule according
to law and with the aid of the two Houses of Parliament. They had
gone to war with James's father rather than give up their view, and
they had no intention of changing their opinions in order to please
James.
Here, then, were all the materials for a quarrel. James hastened
to prove that he was not the man to avoid a quarrel. He began by
collecting the Customs duties without the consent of Parliament, , an
act which was directly contrary to the promise given by his father
when he agreed to the Petition cf Right. Like his brother Charles, he
stooped to take bribes from the King of France, and by so doing bound
himself to be the servant of that powerful king. He chose for his chief
minister the Earl of Rochester, his brother-in-law,1 who he hoped
would suppport him in all he did. In the first year of his reign James
summoned Parliament.
At first it seemed as if all would go well, for though the Parliament
was a Protestant one, most of the members belonged to the Cavalier
party and to the Established Church, and many of them had been
alarmed by the discovery of the " Rye House Plot " and feared lest the
Nonconformists should regain the power which they had possessed
during the time of the Commonwealth. Money was voted to the king,
and as yet there was no sign of disagreement in either House of
Parliament. It was not long, however, before the storm began to
gather. The first clouds appeared in Scotland.
The king, who it must be remembered was King of Scotland as
well as King of England, gave orders that the laws against the
Covenanters in Scotland should be strictly carried out. Graham of
Claverhouse, the hero of the famous song " Bonnie Dundee" — a man of
great courage, but cruel and unscrupulous — was employed to do the
work. The Covenanters, who dared to preach and to hold their services
openly in defiance of the law, were persecuted with the utmost cruelty,
hunted, and, in many cases, put to death.
The great majority of the people of the south of Scotland witnessed
this persecution with feelings of anger and sorrow. It was not long
before they took an opportunity of showing how strongly they dis-
approved of the action of the king. Already there were many in
1 Lawrence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, was the second son of the Earl of Clarendon.
SEDGEMOOR . 533
England who were ready to join with the Scots in resisting King
James. The Independents— and, indeed, many other Protestants in
England — saw with alarm a Roman Catholic king upon the throne,
supported by a Cavalier — or, as it was now called, a " Tory "-
Parliament, and were quite ready to join with the Covenanters in
open war.
Sedgemoor.
"Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason?
Why, if it prosper none dare call it treason."
Sir John Harrington: "Epigram."
In the very first year of the king's reign an insurrection broke out.
In Scotland it was headed by the Earl of Argyle. In England it was
led by the Duke of Monmouth, who landed with a small force at Lyme
Regis, in Dorsetshire. Monmouth and his friends hoped and believed
that most of the Protestants, or, at any rate, a very large number of
them, would rise and declare themselves in his favour as soon as he
landed. But in this he proved to be altogether mistaken. It was true
that James was not beloved by the English Protestants, but up to this
time he had done nothing to injure them, and the Parliament which
he had called together was friendly to him.
Moreover, Monmouth was not the true heir to the crown, and could
only sit on the throne by the right of conquest, and this the people of
England had no wish to bring about. The only friends upon whom
Monmouth could rely were a small number of Nonconformists and
those who had some special reason to be discontented with King
James. But with so small a number of friends he had no chance of
making himself master of England.
We shall see that later on a great change came over the feeling of
the country. Ere three years had gone by James had succeeded in
offending or alarming nearly every Protestant in England, and when
that time came he was easily driven from his throne. But the time
had not yet arrived, as Monmouth found to his cost. A few of the
poorer people joined him when he landed, but scarcely any man of
wealth or influence took his side. At Taunton he received a welcome
from the townspeople ; and his handsome face, perhaps, as much as
his cause, won for him the good wishes of the women who welcomed
him as he rode through the streets,
534 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
But already his fate was sealed. A force, under the command of
Lord Feversham, had marched into the west from London, and this
force had now been joined by a brilliant and active officer, named
Lord Churchill, who was afterwards to become famous, under the name
of the Duke of Marlborough, as one of England's greatest generals.
The royal army encountered Monmouth's little force upon Sedge-
moor, in Somersetshire. The charge of the duke's troops was broken
by a deep ditch, known as the Great Rhine, which crossed the
battlefield, and of which the soldiers were unaware until they tumbled
into it in the faint light of the early morning. The king's troops fell
upon them in their confusion, and the battle ended in a rout. Many
of the insurgents were cut down by the cavalry, others were taken
prisoners and hanged on the spot.
Monmouth himself was caught and taken to London. He was
brought before King James. In the presence of the king his courage
altogether forsook him. He flung himself down on the ground and
begged, in abject terms, for pardon and for life. But James would
have no mercy. Monmouth's crime, he said, was of too deep a dye
to be forgiven. On the i5th of July, 1685, the unhappy duke was
beheaded.
The unfortunate men and women whom he had persuaded to
follow him now suffered for their rashness. Judge Jeffreys, a cruel,
savage-minded lawyer, was chosen by the king to go down to the
counties of Somerset and Dorset for the purpose of trying those who
had taken part in the rebellion. The trials were conducted without
justice or mercy. Scores of the persons accused were hanged. Many
were condemned and sold as slaves, to be sent to the American
plantations ; others were fined, robbed, and tortured. To this day
the cruelty of Judge Jeffreys is remembered in the west of England,
and men still speak of his visit as the " Bloody Assize."
The insurrection in Scotland, under the Earl of Argyle, did not end
more fortunately than that under the Duke of Monmouth. The very
week after Monmouth's landing Argyle was defeated, and his army
broken up. The earl himself was taken prisoner, and was executed
June 3oth, 1685.
536 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
From Bad to Worse.
" The pretended power of suspending of laws and the execution of laws
by regal authority without consent of Parliament, is illegal.
"The raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time
of peace, unless it be with consent of Parliament, is against the law. "—
From the " Bill of Rights," 1689.
The defeat of Monmouth and Argyle made James feel much more
secure on his throne than he had hitherto done. Having got rid so
easily of one set of enemies, he thought himself strong enough to enter
into a conflict with another, but this new conflict proved to be a much
more dangerous one than that from which he had just come out
victorious, for his new enemies were really the people of England. It
must not be forgotten that James believed that he was a king by Divine
Right, and that he was entitled to consider himself above the law and
to govern the country without consulting Parliament. He was now
determined that he would get rid of all the obstacles which prevented
him from carrying out his will and prevented him from ruling as
he believed a " king by Divine Right " ought to rule.
There were three things on which James had set his heart. The
first was the abolition of the " Test Act." The Test Act, it must be
remembered, was the Act which had been passed in the reign of
Charles II. by which all persons who refused to declare themselves
members of the Established Church were forbidden to hold any public
office. It was not at all wonderful that James should wish to do away
with this Act, for he himself had been driven out of his office by it
when Lord High Admiral. Indeed, though the Act was looked upon
with favour by the majority of Protestants, it was a bad Act in
itself, because it punished men for their opinions and prevented many
good and honourable men from serving the country. If James had been
content to wait till Parliament had repealed the law, all might have
been well ; but he was not content to wait, as we shall see.
The second thing which James wished to do was to get rid of the
Habeas Corpus Act. As long as the Test Act remained law it was
difficult for him to reward his friends. The Habeas Corpus Act made
it hard for him to punish his enemies. He wished to be able to put
his enemies into prison and to be able to keep them there without their
being brought up for trial, and perhaps acquitted, by a jury who
were unfriendly to him.
The third thing which James wished to do was to increase the
Standing Army. Louis XIV. had raised a very strong army, and was
FROM BAD TO WORSE. 537
able by means of it to do very much what he liked in France. James
longed to have a strong and obedient force in England which would
enable him to override Parliament and to use his power as Louis XIV.
used his in France.
He now set to work to try to gain all his three objects. A Bill
was brought in to repeal the Test Act, but Parliament would not pass
it. James therefore decided to act without the consent of Parliament.
Following the example of his brother Charles, he declared that he had
a dispensing power which enabled him to dispense with or set aside the
law in any particular case.
The judges, among whom was Judge Jeffreys, decided by a large
majority that the king had a right to use the " dispensing power," and
James at once appointed Roman Catholics to a number of important
posts. The Earl of Tyrconnel, a brave but violent and cruel soldier, was
one of those appointed. He was made one of the king's ministers
and soon became his most powerful supporter. The people saw with
dismay all the work which they thought had been done by the passing
of the Test Act destroyed in a moment.
James now tried to strengthen the Army. He pointed to Monmouth's
insurrection to show how necessary it was that he should have more
troops ; but Parliament, believing that the soldiers were more likely to
be used against itself than in defence of the kingdom, refused to vote
the money that was required. Already the discontent was rising, and
there were riots in London. James took advantage of the riots to es-
tablish a camp of soldiers at Hounslow, so that he might always be able
to call in troops to put down the unruly Protestants in the city.
In 1687 the Earl of Tyrconnel was sent over to Ireland as Lord-
Lieutenant. It was not long before he succeeded in relighting the fire
of civil war in that country. Cromwell, when he had conquered
Ireland, had driven thousands of his enemies from the lands which
they possessed, and large estates had been given to his soldiers and to
other friends of the Commonwealth. In the year 1662 an arrangement
or " settlement " had been come to by which a certain number of the
Royalists and Roman Catholics had a portion of their lands restored
to them.
Tyrconnel, acting on behalf of King James, now determined that he
would once more upset the settlement that had been made. He openly
took up the cause of the Roman Catholics, and showed the utmost
violence against the Protestants. His cruelty and oppression soon
plunged Ireland once more into civil war. Nor were James and
Tyrconnel content with showing favour to the Roman Catholics in
Ireland, in which country they formed the great majority of the people;
538 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
but they soon bethought themselves of the unhappy plan ot using
Roman Catholic soldiers, raised and drilled by Tyrconnel in Ireland,
to overawe the Protestants in England.
The Throne becomes Vacant.
"It was even more necessary to England at that time that her king
should be a usurper, than that he should be a hero. There could be no
security for gocd government without a change of dynasty." — Macaulay.
Now that James had succeeded in setting aside the Test Act, and
in raising in Ireland the army which he was prevented from raising in
England, he felt himself strong enough to declare open war against
the Protestant party. On the 4th of April, 1687, he issued a proclama-
tion, called " The Declaration of Indulgence" by which he did away with
all punishments against those who broke the Test Act. Once again
the king had done a right thing in the wrong way, and, indeed, it may
be said for a wrong reason also. It was a right thing to declare that
no man should be punished for his religious opinions, but it was
altogether a wrong thing to declare that an Act of Parliament which
had been properly made should be broken and set aside merely by the
king's will.
Moreover, though it is true that the Declaration of Indulgence gave
a pardon to Nonconformists as well as to Roman Catholics, it was quite
clear to everyone that it was the Roman Catholics only, and not the
Nonconformists, whom King James wished to benefit. This was so
clear that even the Nonconformists themselves showed no pleasure
when they heard of the king's declaration, and many of them joined
with the Protestants who belonged to the Established Church in con-
demning James for openly breaking the law and putting himself above
the Parliament.
Throughout the country the indignation against the king was very
great, and it became greater when he gave orders that the Declaration
of Indulgence should be publicly read in all the churches. The
bishops of the Established Church point-blank refused to obey the
king's orders. The Archbishop of Canterbury and six of the bishops
were imprisoned and sent to the Tower.
They were brought before the Court of King's Bench, and tried. A
number of the Nonconformists went to them as a deputation, to give them
comfort while they lay in the Tower, and the king thus saw that he
had at last united against him Protestants of all parties. The trial
THE SEVEN BISHOPS ENTERING THE TOWER.
54Q HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
ended in an acquittal, and the seven bishops were received with
enthusiasm by the people of London on their release. Even the
soldiers in the camp at Hounslow Heath cheered when they heard of
the acquittal of the bishops. Great was the alarm of the king when
he learnt that even the army could not be trusted to support him.
But no warning was sufficient to teach the king wisdom. He
turned out the Protestant Heads of colleges at the Universities of
Oxford and Cambridge, and put Roman Catholics in their places. He
brought Irish troops over, and mixed them up with the English
regiments at Hounslow. He thought that by so doing he would be
more certain of the support of the army. The very contrary was thd
result, for the English officers and men were indignant at having their
places taken by Tyrconnel's Roman Catholics. It was already clear
that the king's throne was tottering.
James hoped that the birth of a son, which took place on June loth,
1688, would strengthen his cause, and that those who had supported
his Protestant daughter, Mary,(92) as long as she was the next heir to the
throne, would change their minds now that a Prince of Wales (94) had been
born. But many declared that no child had ever really been born,
and that the new Prince of Wales was a baby who had been brought
in and adopted by the king as his own to deceive the country. Those
who were already preparing to desert the king saw in the birth of
an heir another reason for acting quickly. Already several of the
ministers and courtiers on whom James most fully depended were
writing letters to his son-in-law, the Prince of Orange,(9]) inviting him to
come over, and promising him their support if he did so.
It was not, however, till the end of the year 1688 that William
thought his time had come to act openly. On the loth of October in
that year, the Prince of Orange made a " declaration " recalling all
the illegal acts of James, accepting the invitation of Parliament to
take the place of his father-in-law on the throne, and announcing ihat
he was about to land in England with an army and to proclaim a
"free and legal Parliament." On the 5th November, 1688, William
landed at Torbay. An army was sent to stop him, but the Earl of
Marlborough, who was one of the principal generals, deserted to the
enemy, and was followed by many other officers.
James fled from London. The House of Lords undertook the
government of the country till the arrival of William. In no part of
England did anyone rise on behalf of the king, while the feeling
against the Roman Catholics in England was shown by riots in
London and elsewhere. William reached London unopposed, and
placed his cause in the hands of Parliament. The House of Commons
THE THRONE BECOMES VACANT. 541
declared that King James having broken the agreement between king
and people, and having by the advice of wicked people violated the
laws, and having withdrawn from the country, had " abdicated the
Government," and that " the throne had thereby become vacant."
The throne being vacant, the true heir was the baby Prince of
Wales, but his claim was not allowed. The next heir was Mary, the
elder daughter of King James and wife of William. Mary, however,
altogether refused to become queen unless her husband at the same
time became king. Parliament agreed to her request, and William and
Mary were proclaimed joint-sovereigns (i3th February, 1689). The
unhappy James succeeded in escaping to France, where he immediately
sought and found refuge at the Court of Louis XIV., the bitter enemy
of England and of the Protestant cause.
CHAPTER LVIII.
WILLIAM III. AND MARY-THE REVOLUTION AND
LIMITED MONARCHY.
1689-1702.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF WILLIAM III.
AND MARY.
William III., King of England, son of
William II., Prince of Orange, and
Mary, daughter of Charles I., b. 1650,
became king 1689, d. 1702.
Mary, Queen of England, daughter of J ames 1 1.
and Anne Hyde, wife of William III.,
b. 1662, became queen 1689, d. 1694.
James Stuart, formerly King of England,
d. 1701.
James Edward, son of James II. and Mary
of Modena, known as the "Old Pre-
tender."
Anne, daughter of James II., sister of Queen
Mary, afterwards Queen of England.
William, Duke of Gloucester, son of
Anne, b. 1689, d. 1700.
LOUiS XIV., King of France.
Charles II., King of Spain, d. 1700.
Philip V., King of Spain.
Leopold I., Emperor.
Frederick I., King of Prussia, 1701.
Peter the Great, Czar of Russia.
Charles XII., King of Sweden, 1697.
Alexander VIII., Pope, d. 1691.
Innocent XII., d. 1700.
Clement XI.
Principal Ministers of William and
Mary:—
Sidney, Earl of Godolphin.
The Earl of Nottingham.
The Earl of Shrewsbury.
John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough,
b, 1650, afterwards Duke of Marl-
borough.
Sarah (Jennings), Countess, afterwards
Duchess of Marlborough.
The Earl Of Tyrconnel, commander of the
Jacobites in Ireland.
The Count de Lauzun, commander of the
French troops in Ireland.
Patrick Sarsfield, defender of Limerick
for James, d. 1693.
The Marquis of Argyle, head of the Whigs
John Graham, Viscount Dundee, chief of
the Jacobites in Scotland, d. 1689.
The Duke of Schpmberg, chief of William's
generals, killed at the Boyne, 1690.
ViSCOUnt TOITington, English Admiral.
The Count de Tourville, French Admiral,
d. 1701.
Robert Paterson, founder of the Darien
Company.
Sir Godfrey Kneller, German Painter.
Great Writers:—
John Dryden, d. 171-0.
Daniel Defoe, b. 1661.
Sir Isaac Newton, b. 1642.
John Locke, b. 1632.
William Congreve, dramatist, b. 1670.
Great French Writer :—
Jean Racine, d. 1699.
542
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF WILLIAM III.
AND MARY.
1689. The King: and Queen assent to the
Declaration of Rights.
James lands in Ireland, and calls Parlia-
ment to Dublin.
May 26, Battle of Killiecrankie. Death
of Dundee.
Continuance of the war on the Continent.
1690. March 14, a French army lands in
Ireland.
June 30, Torrington defeated off Beachy
Head.
July i, Battle of the Boyne.
Founding of English settlement at
Calcutta.
1692. Threatened invasion of England.
War with France.
The Massacre of Glencoe.
1693. War continued.
1694. Triennial Act-passed.
16^4. Death of Queen Mary.
Bank of England founded.
1697. Peace of Ryswick.
1698. Peter the Great of Russia visits Eng-
land.
Scottish colony established on the
Isthmus of Darien.
The King's Dutch guards dismissed.
1700. Death of the Duke of Gloucester, son
of the Princess Anne.
Charles XII. of Sweden defeats the
Russians at Narva.
1701. The Act of Settlement passed.
War with France renewed.
The Elector of Brandenburg takes the
title of King of Prussia.
Tames II. d. (Sept. 16).
1702. William III. d. (March 8).
Whig's and Tories.
"WHIGGAMORES, or WHIGS."-From the Scottish "uuhiggam," used in
driving horses. A term of contempt applied to members of an unruly mob
who marched to Edinburgh in the 17th century. Afterwards used to describe
the political party in England opposed to the "Tories."
"TORY."— A name originally given to a class of Irish plunderers among
the bogs in the 16th century ; afterwards used as a nickname for the
political party in England opposed to the "Whigs." — Dictionary.
IT must not be supposed that— now that William and Mary had been
crowned King and Queen of England, and James had been driven
from the throne — the troubles of England were over, or that peace
was really restored. On the contrary, it soon became clear that the
clouds which had hitherto only threatened were now about to break
in a fierce storm upon the country.
In order to understand what took place during this reign it is
necessary to remember how many different Parties there were, and
how little agreement there was even among those who had joined
together to dethrone King James.
The position of the king and queen was a very difficult one.
Mary had only succeeded in obtaining the crown by driving her own
father from his throne and from his kingdom. It was not easy to feel
any great affection for a daughter who had thus triumphed through
the misfortunes of her father ; and, though the Protestants of England
WHIGS AND IVORIES.
543
thought that a Protestant queen was necessary for the good of the
country, they bore little love to Mary herself. William was much less
loved even than his wife. In the first place, he was a foreigner with
unattractive manners, unaccustomed to English ways and thoughts,
and caring little for English concerns, except when they helped or
hindered him in the great work to which he had given up his life.
It had been the one
great object of William's
life to oppose and to
defeat the power of
France, which had so
long threatened his own
native country of Hol-
land, and which had
now become strong
enough to threaten the
Protestant cause in every
country of Europe. Year
after year William had
formed fresh alliances
among the Protestant
States of Europe. Year
after year he had seen
his hopes of success
destroyed either by the
victory of the French
troops or by the deser-
tion of one or other of
his allies.
But in the darkest
times he had never given
way to despair, and after each defeat he had set to work again as
persistently as ever to thwart King Louis at every turn. Now that
he had been made King of England William was far from giving up
the great object for which he had worked so long and so hard. On
the contrary, he hoped and believed that, now that he had got the
power of England behind him, he would be able to continue the
struggle against his old enemy King Louis with greater vigour and
success than before. .
But while the king's object was to use England and the English
fleets and armies in the war against France, the views of his new
subjects did not at all agree with his own. In England, indeed, parties
WILLIAM III.
544 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
were greatly divided. The Whig nobles who had taken the chief part
in bringing William over, had not got rid of one master in order to set
up another. According to their view, it was the duty of the Sovereign
to be guided in all things by his ministers. Parliament alone was to
decide what money should be spent and what taxes should be voted.
Besides holding all these views, the Whigs held another opinion,
which they considered quite as important as any of the others. This
opinion was, that the king's ministers, whoever they were, should be
chosen only from among the Whigs, and that all offices of profit and
all the rewards given for public service should be bestowed upon
the Whigs, and upon the Whigs alone. As long as King William
quite understood what they expected him to do, and acted accord-
ingly, the Whigs were ready to support him, but no longer..
On the other hand, the Tories, many of whom still believed in the
doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings, and whose chief strength lay
among the country gentlemen, supported the king not because they
loved him much, but because they loved King James less. Many of
the Tories were still suffering from the losses they had had to bear
during the Civil War, and they felt that, although "the king had
got his own again," they had not received the rewards to which
their loyalty and their misfortunes entitled them.
They were strong supporters of the Established Church ; and
though they were no friends to the Roman Catholics, it was upon the
Nonconformists that they looked with the greatest dislike — a dislike
which had never died out since the days of the Long Parliament.
The Tories, like the Whigs, were clearly of opinion that if the king
were advised by ministers at all, those ministers ought to be Tories,
and that if rewards for public services were to be given to anyone,
it was to the Tories they ought to go.
We now see how the plan of governing the country by a " Party,"
which is the plan we still follow, first came into use. From this time
forward for many years there was a continual struggle for office
between Whigs and Tories. In the old days of James I. and Charles I.
the fall of one of the great parties would have meant the fall of the
king, but this was not so now. Whigs and Tories might quarrel as
bitterly as they liked, and might oppose King William as much as
they dared, but both parties knew that all the time there was a third
party — that of King James and the Roman Catholics, supported by King
Louis of France— always ready to come back if once William and Mary
were got out of the way. However much they differed, therefore, on
other matters, the Whigs and Tories were agreed upon one point,
namely, that the king must be kept upon the throne.
THE WAR IN IRELAND. 545
There was also another reason why the fall of a Whig or a Tory
Ministry did not bring with it the fall of the king. The Whigs, as we
have seen, were the first to declare that the king could only act by the
advice of his ministers ; and they made it a rule that whenever the
king signed his name to an order or a proclamation, a minister should
sign his name under it to show that he was responsible for advising the
king in the matter.
The Whigs went further, and declared that if the advice given to
the king proved to be wrong it was the minister, and not the king, who
must be punished. And down to this day this has been the rule
which has been observed in our government. As soon as this rule
came to be followed the position of the Kings of England was changed.
They had less power, because they could do nothing but what their
ministers advised them to do ; but, on the other hand, they were much
more secure than they had been, because, whatever happened, the
blame and the punishment fell upon their ministers, and not upon
them.
The War in Ireland : Enniskillen and Derry.
"It is high treason to instigate any foreigner with force to invade
the realm, or any other of the queen's dominions." — Stephen: " Digest of the
Criminal Laiv."
The first thing which Parliament did when it offered the crown to
William and Mary was to remind the new sovereigns of the grievances
which had so often been complained of in former reigns. The king
and queen were made to promise, in a solemn " declaration," that
they would never claim a " dispensing power " or try to set aside or over-
ride the law ; that they would never raise money, save with the consent of
Parliament ; and that they would never keep up a standing army in time
of peace without the consent of Parliament. The Bill of Eights was put
into the form of an Act, which passed through Parliament and became
the law of the land (1689).
Having done his part in promising to rule as a " Constitutional
King" William now looked to Parliament and to the country to do
their part and to help him in carrying on the war which was so dear
to his heart. Indeed, it soon became perfectly clear that if the new
Government were to hold its own at all, it would only be by hard
fighting. Louis of France was already carrying on a fierce campaign
against the Protestants on the Rhine, and the full danger which
threatened the country was seen when the powerful King of France
S
546 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
made common cause with the fugitive James, and promised him the
support both of troops and money in his attempt to reconquer his
kingdom.
But it was in Ireland that the flames of war first broke out.
Tyrconnel still held that country for King James, and he was not long
in showing that, as far as he was concerned, the friends of King
William could look for neither favour nor protection. The Protestant
troops in Ireland were at once disbanded, and Roman Catholic
soldiers enlisted in their stead. The "Settlement" of the land was
no longer recognised. In many parts of the country the Protestants
were compelled to fly for their lives, and their property was seized by
Tyrconnel and his friends.
A number of the Protestants took refuge in the town of Enniskillen,
a still larger number sought safety within the walls of Londonderry.
Tyrconnel at once sent troops to occupy that city, but he was too late.
A small party of thirteen of the "Apprentice, Boys " of Derry, knowing
the danger which threatened them and their friends, acted bravely
and promptly ; without waiting for orders, they shut the gates of
Londonderry in the face of the Earl of Antrim, Tyrconnel's general.
The city of Derry was at once fortified, and thousands of the fugitive
Protestants fled to it for protection. The whole country was now at
the mercy of Tyrconnel, and scenes of savage disorder and blood-
shed were witnessed on every side. Houses were burnt, cattle
were wantonly killed or allowed to die, and property worth millions
of pounds was destroyed.
And now Tyrconnel and the "Jacobites"1 made a great mistake,
which in the end proved, as it deserved to prove, the ruin of their
cause. They called upon the King of France to send troops into the
country. James himself came over to Ireland accompanied by French
officers, and aided by French money. The Irish Roman Catholics
were stirred up against the Protestants. A Parliament was called in
Dublin, which in a few weeks did all in its power to complete the ruin
of the country. The " Settlement " of the land was altogether set
asjde, and thousands of people were ruined by the change. Base
money was issued from the mint in Dublin, a step which soon
destroyed the little trade that remained, for no one would take a
brass coin worth a farthing in payment for goods worth a shilling or
eighteenpence. The Irish Parliament tried to force people to take
the false coin, but without success.
Not content with these cruel and foolish measures, the Parliament
1 The friends of King James were called " Jacobites," the Latin form of ihe King's name
being " Jacobus."
THE BIRMINGHAM TOWER AND ST, PATRICK'S CHAPEL, DUBLIN CASTLE.
548
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
next passed a great "Act of Attainder" against no less than 3,000
persons, whose lives and properties were declared to be 'forfeited.
These acts of folly, while they did little to help the cause of King
James in Ireland, disgusted even those who were his friends in
England. The warmest supporters of the dethroned king were
shocked when they heard of the cruelties which were being inflicted
on the Irish Protestants, and were indignant when they saw French
troops brought into the country.
Meanwhile the brave resistance which was made by the defenders
of Enniskillen and Londonderry moved the hearts of the English Pro-
testants. Londonderry was closely besieged by a large army. Ships
were sent from England to relieve the place. A strong boom had
been drawn across the harbour, and the ships could not get up the
river Foyle. They were compelled to return, having done nothing.
It seemed as if Derry were doomed. Provisions were almost exhausted,
the inhabitants were reduced to eating rats and mice, and it was clear
that, in spite of the bravest resistance, famine would soon compel the
garrison to surrender. Worst of all, Lundy, the governor, proved a
traitor, and tried to betray the town to the enemy.
But the courage of the defenders was kept up by their leaders,
among the bravest of whom were Major Baker and the Eev. George
Walker, a Protestant clergyman. At last relief came. On the 30th of
July, 1689, the English ships were again sighted in Lough Foyle. They
sailed up the narrow river, and the two leading ships — the " Phoenix "
and the " Mountjoy "—charged full into the boom. It gave way under
the shock of the great ships, and the squadron sailed safely up to the
city. Londonderry was saved. On the ist of August the siege, which
had lasted for 105 days, was raised, and the enemy retired. A second
victory, at Newtown Butler, won principally by the men of Enniskillen,
strengthened the cause of the Protestants in the north of Ireland.
55° HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
England in Peril.
"Gome let us all with heart and voice
Applaud our Hues' defender,
Who at the Boyne his valour showed,
And made his foes surrender.
To God above the praise we'll give,
Both now and ever after ;
And bless the glorious memory
Of King William that crossed the water."
Ballad of " Boyne Water. '
Meanwhile in Scotland the struggle was being fought out as. well as
in Ireland. John Graham of Claverhouse, Earl of Dundee, was for King
James, and the Highland clans, for the most part, followed his banner.
The Presbyterians and the Covenanters in the south took up arms for
King William. The Scottish Parliament, at that time known as the
" Convention," refused to take the side of Claverhouse, and the earl,
threatening them with his vengeance, rode off to raise the clans for
King James.
The two armies met in the Pass of Killiecrankie. Mackay, one of
William's officers, was in command of the royal troops. He was
defeated, and his army put to flight, by the fierce charge of the
Highlanders. But the victory proved of little value to King James, for
Dundee, the only commander who could get the Highlanders to unite
in following him, fell in the battle. The clansmen dispersed to their
homes, and before long General Mackay was able to bring the war to
an end, and to establish the authority of King William.
The real danger which now threatened England was the presence
of King James and his French allies in Ireland ; and to Ireland,
therefore, William determined to go.
For a time, however, he hesitated. The Whigs and Tories were
fighting between themselves in London with almost as much vigour as
the Protestants and Roman Catholics in Ireland, and so violent did
their quarrels become that William at one time made up his mind that
a nation so divided as England seemed to be would never enable him
to carry on war against France, and he would have given up the crown
and quitted the country altogether if his Whig ministers, frightened at
the idea of being deserted, had not implored him to remain.
Parliament was dissolved, and the new House of Commons
ENGLAND IN PERIL.
contained a large Tory majority. The Tories showed themselves more
favourable to William's wishes than the Whigs had been. They con-
sented to allow the king to do what he had long wished to do — namely,
to give a free pardon to all those who had taken part against the
Crown in the Civil War.1 This "Act of Grace," as it was called, was
an exceedingly wise step, and did much to strengthen the position of
William upon the
throne.
In the year 1690
William, with an
English and Dutch
army, crossed over
to Ireland. Not for
many years had
England been in so
grave a danger.
Her best troops
were across St.
George's Channel.
A civil war was
in progress in Ire-
land; it was smoul-
dering in Scotland,
and was feared in
England itself. It
was at this moment
that a great French
fleet, under the com-
mand of Admiral
Tourville, appeared
in the Channel.
Lord Torrington, with
an English and
Dutch fleet, en-
countered Tourville off Beachy Head. After a long action the English
and Dutch were defeated. Torrington was compelled to take refuge
in the Thames, and the French fleet became complete master of the
Channel. Luckily no French troops were ready to be landed, and the
danger soon passed away.
Within a few days after the defeat off Beachy Head, news reached
1 The Regicides who had actually taken part in bringing about the execution of Charles I.
and a few others were excepted by name.
JOHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE, VISCOUNT DUNDEE.
(From the painting by Sir Peter Lely.}
552 If js TORY ot< ENGLAND.
England of a great victory won upon the Eiver Boyne by King William
over the army of King James, commanded by James himself.
The battle of the Boyne, which was fought on July 1st, 1690, was the
death-blow to the hopes of King James. He fled from the field of
battle, hurried through Dublin to Waterford, and took ship to France
never to return.
The war which followed in Ireland ended in the complete defeat
of the Jacobites. Just a year after the battle of the Boyne, the
authority of King William had been established throughout Ireland.
But the bitter memories of the terrible struggle on Irish soil have
remained to this day, and are a sorrowful result of the war.
Fighting- It Out.
'•/ propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer." —
General U. S. Grant.1
William was now at last free to carry out the wish so dear to his
heart, and to continue the war against France. A certain number of
English troops were sent over to Holland, where they took part with
varying success in the battles and sieges in Flanders. Even now,
however, it was plain that William was by no means safe on his
throne. As if it were not enough that father and daughter should
be bitter enemies, a quarrel sprang up between Queen Mary and
her sister Anne.
Among the closest friends of the Princess Anne was Sarah Jennings,
who, by her marriage with Lord Churchill, had become Countess of
Marlborough. Sarah was an exceedingly clever, ambitious, and in-
triguing woman, who made many bitter enemies by her sharp tongue,
and who was always ready to pay back hatred with hatred. She
gained a complete mastery over the Princess Anne, whose slow wits
were no match for those of her clever and active favourite. Nothing
could be closer than the friendship between Anne and Sarah, and for
years the Princess Anne used to write letters to the Lady Marlborough
beginning " My dear Mrs. Freeman,'" the Countess writing back to " My
dear Mrs. M or ley."
It was not wonderful, therefore, that when Marlborough fell into
1 Telegram sent by General Grant to President Lincoln during the American Civil War.
General Grant's pertinacity led to the complete triumph of the Federal cause.
FIGHTING IT Our. 553
disgrace, his wife's clearest friend, the Princess Anne, should suffer
also. Maryborough, an ambitious man, who had made himself very
popular with the English soldiers under his command, was jealous of
the Dutch generals, to whom William showed his special favour. The
earl believed that he had not received the rewards to which his merits
entitled him, and, angry and discontented, he prepared a second time
to betray his king. He began to write letters to King James in
France, declaring that the time would soon come when James could
safely return to his throne ; and, what was even more serious,
he persuaded the Princess Anne to add her letters to those which
he himself sent.
Nor was this the greatest treachery of which Maryborough was
guilty, for it is certain that, on a later occasion, he actually went so
far as to inform the French of an intended English expedition against
Brest, and that the information which he gave helped to bring about
the defeat of the English, and caused the loss of hundreds of English
soldiers. It is not wonderful, therefore, that when Marlborough's
treachery was discovered, he and his wife were disgraced and dis-
missed from Court. The Princess Anne took up the cause of her
favourite, and a bitter quarrel broke out between the Queen and her
sister. There can be no doubt that, if things had turned against
William, Marlborough would have openly deserted to King James.
But events now took place which once more destroyed the hopes of
the Jacobites. In the year 1692 a great French fleet was collected for
the invasion of England. James fully believed that this time he would
return in triumph to his throne ; but, with his usual want of wisdom,
he sent over a proclamation to England declaring that everybody who
did not join him at once would be held a traitor, and naming hundreds
of Englishmen whom he declared he would never pardon. This was
not the way to make friends, and all parties joined heartily in the
preparations which were made to resist the king who was coming
with threats of punishment in his hand, and with a French army
at his back.
The English and Dutch fleets united, and, under the command of
Admiral Eooke, and in superior numbers, attacked the French under
Tourville off Cape La Hogue (May, 1692). The French fleet was broken
to pieces, and many of the ships were taken or driven ashore. Once
more the danger of invasion was at an end.
The war in Flanders, however, continued with little profit or
advantage to England, and at the battle of Steinkirk (July, 1692) a
large number of the English soldiers were killed. The English at
home blamed the Dutch general for the defeat, and loud murmurs
554 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
were heard against the favour which the king showed to the Dutch
generals and the Dutch troops. Indeed, as the war continued, and
the expense became greater and greater, the discontent in England
grew rapidly. For the first time the country had to run heavily into
debt to pay its expenses, and it seemed as if all the money which was
spent brought no return but defeat and disappointment.
But William was determined to continue the war at any cost. If
the Tories would not help him any longer, he was determined to try
what the Whigs would do. A Whig Government was formed, in which
Lord Somers, Lord Halifax, Lord Russell, and Lord Wharton became the
principal ministers. The king asked for money. Parliament, as
usual, declared that, if he wanted money, he must give something
in return. They, therefore, asked him to agree to an Act which
limited the length of a Parliament to three years.1 The king, very
much against his will, was forced to give his assent (1694).
The Last Years of King William.
"To the glorious, pious, and immortal memory of his late Majesty
King William HI."— Whig Toast.
"To the king over the water." — Jacobite Toast.'2
It was in 1694 that Queen Mary died, and William now reigned as
the sole sovereign of the country. With the help of the Whigs
he continued the war, and this time the English troops were more
successful than before, and the capture of the strong fortress of Namur,
in 1695, was looked upon as a great triumph. The king was received
with enthusiasm on his return to England, and the Parliament, which
was summoned, supported the Whig Ministry which had been so
fortunate in the war.
The Jacobites, unsuccessful in arms, now attempted to get rid of
their enemy by other means. Various plots against the life of the
king were discovered, and their authors punished. The discovery
of these plots made William's position stronger than it had been
before, and when at last peace was signed at Ryswick, in September,
1 The " Triennial Bill."
2 When called upon to drink the health of the king or queen at public banquets, the Jacobites
often passed their glass over a glass or bottle of water standing on the table before drinking.
They declared that they thus drank the health of " the king over the water," by which they
meant the Pretender across the Channel in France.
THE LAST YEARS OF KING WILLIAM.
555
1697, the country seemed at last agreed in its support of the king and
of his Whig ministers.
It is, however, always the case in a country which is governed by
parties that, when one quarrel between the two contending factions has
been settled, something fresh to quarrel about will certainly be found
before very long. The Tories, who were out of office, lost no oppor-
tunity of calling attention to all the mistakes which they said were
made by the Whigs,
who were in office.
Above all, they sought
to create discontent
against the king on
account of the number
of Dutch troops which
he still kept in the
country. They de-
clared, indeed, that the
army was altogether too
big, and that now peace
had been made it ought
to be reduced ; but
they specially insisted
that William's Dutch
soldiers should be sent
out of the country.
The English people
were easily persuaded
to agree with this view,
and, to the great disgust
of King William, a Bill
was actually carried
through the House of
Commons declaring that the army must be made up only of English-
men. The king, who saw himself deprived of the Dutch guards whom
he trusted, and to whom he owed so much, declared that he would
leave a country which had shown itself so ungrateful, and it was
with great difficulty that Lord Somers persuaded him to give up his
intention.
The Tories, however, had now got the majority in Parliament, and
the Whig ministers were once more defeated. For a time William
and his ministers continued to fight against the majority, but at last
the king gave up the attempt in despair, and dissolved Parliament in
QUEEN MARY.
556 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
1700, and a new Tory Ministry was formed, of which the Earl of
Rochester and Lord Godolphin were the heads. The chief work which
was done by this Parliament was to pass what was called the "Act of
Succession" (1701), by which it was provided that, in the event of the
death of the Princess Anne without heirs, the crown of England should
go to the next Protestant heir, and not to the " Pretender, "t!ll) as the son
of James II. was called.
In 1701 the war on the Continent broke out again, and, as before,
William longed to join it, and to strike one more blow at his old
enemy Louis XIV. He accordingly sent over 10,000 troops to Holland,
under the command of Marlborough, who had now been restored to
favour, and he shortly afterwards crossed over himself to the Conti-
nent. It was at this time (1701) that poor James II. died in exile at
St. Germains, in France.
He left his cause to his son. Whether that son, if he had been
wise, might some day have recovered his father's throne is uncertain,
but the young prince not only showed no wisdom himself, but had the
misfortune to possess very unwise friends. Louis XIV. immediately
acknowledged the young Prince James as King of England. The
people of England, who had struggled so long to be rid of the father,
and who had declared through their Parliament that neither father
nor son should ever reign in their country, were furious when they saw
the young prince adopted as the open friend of the enemy of England.
The war, which up to this time had been unpopular, was now
generally approved. It was felt that King William must be supported
at any cost. A new Parliament was summoned. It was known that
the Whigs would support the king in continuing the war, and the
Whigs, therefore, became once more powerful in both Houses of
Parliament. The great majority of the nation seemed, for the second
time, united in their determination that another James Stuart should
not reign in England.
At the very time, hcvwever, when the hopes which William had so
long cherished seemed about to be fulfilled, there came an end to all
his plans. On the 20th February, 1702, the king, as he rode to Hamp-
ton Court to hunt, met with an accident. His horse fell, it is said,
upon a mole-hill, and the king suffered injuries from which he never
recovered. Fever set in, and he died in a fortnight.
He was a man with few friends and many enemies : with many
faults, but with some great virtues. He was a king to whom, whatever
his faults, the cause of liberty and good government in this country
owes a deep debt of gratitude. The enemies of England for many a
year were accustomed to drink to the health of " The little gentleman in
THE LAST YEARS OF KING WILLIAM.
557
black " — the mole whose crumbling mound caused the fall, and brought
about the death of William of Orange.
But scarcely was the king in his grave when every Englishman
who cared for good government, for religious freedom, and for the
independence of England, recognised in William of Orange one of our
greatest sovereigns. And we in these days have certainly no reason
to value less highly than our ancestors the work of this silent, deter-
mined, unpopular Dutchman,
CHAPTER LIX.
ANNE— THE LAST OF THE STUARTS.
"1702-1714.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF
QUEEN ANNE.
Anne,
Queen of England, second daughter of
James II. and Anne Hyde, b. 1664,
became queen 1702, d. 1714.
George, brother of the King of Denmark,
husband of Anne, m. 1683, d. 1708.
Sophia (the Electress) of Hanover, heire«s to
the throne, granddaughter of James
I., d. 1714.
George, son of the Electress Sophia, after-
wards Elector of Hanover and King
of England, b. 1660.
James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender),
son of James II. and Mary of Modena.
Louis XIV., King of France.
PMlip V., King of Spain.
Leopold I., Emperor, d. 1705.
Joseph I Emperor, d. 1711.
Charles VI., Emperor.
Frederick I., King of Prussia, d. 1713.
Frederick William I., King of Prussia.
Peter the Great, Czar of Russia.
Charles XII., King of Sweden.
Clement XL, Pope.
John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough.
Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough.
Principal Ministers of Anne :—
Sidney, Earl of Godolphin, d. 1712.
Robert Harley, afterwards Earl of
Oxford.
Charles Talbot, Duke of Shrews-
bury.
Henry St. John, Viscount Boling-
broke.
Sir Robert Walpple, b. 1676, after-
wards Prime Minister.
Prince Eugene of Savoy.
Admiral Sir George Rooke, d. 1709.
Dr. Sacheverell.
Sir Isaac Newton, b. 1642.
Sir Christopher Wren, b. 1632.
Great Writers :—
Daniel Defoe, b. 1661.
Matthew Prior, b. 1664.
Jonathan Swift, b. 1667.
Sir Richard Steele, b. 1671.
Joseph Addison, b 1672.
Alexander Pope, b. 1688.
Great Painters:—
Watteau ( French).
Sir Godfrey Kneller (German).
William Hogarth (English), b. 1697.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE.
1702. Anne becomes queen.
Marlborough given command of the
army.
Spanish treasure-ships captured at Vigo.
1704. Rooke takes Gibraltar.
Battle of Blenheim.
1705. Whig Government.
1706. Battle of Ramiliies.
Mrs. Masham (Abigail Hill) supplants
the Duchess of Marlborough as Anne's
favourite.
Prince Eugene's victory at Turin.
558 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
1707. The Act of Union passes the Parlia- ' 1710. Fall of the Whig Ministry.
ments of Scotland and England. Return of Marlborough to England.
Meeting of the first Parliament of 1711. Disgrace of the Duchess of Matl-
" Great Britain." borough.
1708. Battle of Oudenarde. Dismissal of the duke.
1708. Death of the queen's husband, Prince Creation of twelve peers by the
George. Tories.
Birth of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, j 1712. Death of Richard Cromwell.
Capture of Minorca. 1713- Peace of Utrecht.
1709. Battle of Malplaquet. j 1714. Death of the Electress Sophia (June 8X
Sacheverell riots. Death of Queen Anne (August i).
Defeat of Charles XII. of Sweden at I Proclamation of George I.
Pultowa.
The Queen and her Councillors.
"/ am in such haste I can say no more but that I am very sorry
dear Mrs. Freeman will be so unkind as riot to come to her poor unfor-
tunate, faithful Morley, who hues her sincerely, and will do so to the
last moment," — Queen Anne writ ing to the Duchess of Marlborough (1706).
We now come to the reign of Queen Anne,(03) the last of the Stuarts. In
order to understand the events of this reign it is necessary to remember
exactly who Queen Anne was, and what was her claim to the throne.
Anne was the second daughter of James II., and sister of Queen Mary,
whose husband — William of Orange, or William III. — had just died.
By the rule which had always been observed in England the crown
would by right have gone on the death of James II. to his son, James
Edward, Prince of Wales.
But we have already seen how the leaders of the English Parliament
had, by means of a " Revolution," altered the descent of the crown,
and placed Mary upon the throne instead of her brother. Now that
William and Mary were dead, and had left no children, those who had
made the Revolution were determined that they would not lose the
advantages which they had taken so much trouble to obtain.
In the last reign the Act of Succession had been passed which de-
clared that the crown should only go to a Protestant, and everybody
except the Jacobites now looked upon Queen Anne as the right and
proper person to occupy the throne. But though everything went off
peaceably, and the new queen was crowned without anyone objecting,
it must not be forgotten that there were still in England a good many
friends of the Jacobite cause, and that in Scotland and Ireland the
Jacobites were far more numerous than in England. It was all very
we'll for Englishmen to speak of the young prince as the " Pretender,"
THE QUEEN AND HER COUNCILLORS.
559
and to declare that he was not even the son of James II., but as long
as the " Pretender " could find friends ready to fight for him in
England, and could rely upon the help of France, the most formid-
able of England's enemies, he was always a person to be feared.
The fact, too, that Queen Anne, like her sister, left no children to
succeed her did much to strengthen the Jacobite cause, and, as the
years passed by, the
danger to those who
had brought about
the Revolution greatly
increased. But the
claims of the " Pre-
tender " to the crown
of England were not
the only causes of
trouble during Queen
Anne's reign.
The division be-
tween the two great
parties of Whigs and
Tories had grown
sharper than ever,
and the quarrels and
rivalries of the two
parties became fiercer
every year. The Whigs,
who had been the
real authors of the
Revolution, were de-
termined that they
would keep in their QUEEN ANNE.
Own hands all the (From the mezzotint by J. Smith, after Sir Godfrey Kneller.)
power which their
success had brought them. At home it was their object to limit the
power of the Crown and to strengthen that of the ministry. Abroad they
were determined to continue the war which William III. had begun.
The Tories, on the other hand, were ready to give more power to
the king or queen than were the Whigs. Their chief supporters were
to be found among the members of the Established Church. They did
not like the war, and were constantly trying to put a stop to it.
They had been willing to support King William when James was alive,
and they were ready to support Queen Anne as long as she lived, but
560 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
they had no great love for the next heirs to the crown, namely, the
Electress Sophia (89) and her son George ; (95) and many of their leaders
would rather have seen the " Pretender " made king than allow the
Elector of Hanover to be put upon the throne by the Whigs.
We have already seen how Queen Anne had quarrelled with her
sister Mary, and how the cause of the quarrel had been Mary's dislike
for the Duchess of Maryborough. Now that Anne was queen it was not
wonderful that her friend the duchess should become a very powerful
person. Indeed, at the beginning of the reign the two most powerful
people in the whole of England were, without doubt, the Duke and
Duchess of Marlborough. Before she came to the throne Anne had
found most of her friends among the Tories, of whom Marlborough
was one, and it was to the Tories, therefore, that she looked for her
advisers. A ministry was formed, of which Lord Godolphin, a son-in-law
of the Duke of Marlborough, was the head, and nearly all the Whigs
were turned out of office.
But on one very important point the Duke of Marlborough differed
from the other advisers of the Queen. Marlborough was a soldier, and
both as a soldier and as a statesman he wished to continue the war
with France, and, as a soldier, no doubt he was ready to go on fighting
battles in which he felt sure that he could earn glory and distinction.
But as a statesman he wished to continue the war for another reason :
he believed that if Louis XIV. of France were once allowed to become
the master of Europe, it would not be long before he would also be
master of England, and he felt therefore that it was most important
that the whole power of England should be used to help those who
were in arms against the French king.
The War with France.
" He is a soldier fit to stand by Caesar,
And glue direction."
Shakespeare : " Othello," Act II., Scene 3.
Space does not permit us to go into all the particulars of the great
war which raged in Europe during the reign of Queen Anne, but it
would be quite impossible to tell the story of the reign without saying
something about the war, for its consequences are to be felt and seen
at the present day.
The war is known as the " War of the Spanish Succession," and it was
so called because one of the chief reasons for which it was said to be
THE WAR WITH FRANCE.
561
fought was to fix the " Succession to the throne of Spain." King Louis of
France wished to make his grandson King of Spain ; the enemies of
France were determined that this should be prevented, or that, if it
could not be prevented, it should at least be declared that, whatever
happened, the same person should never be both King of France and
King of Spain. We
have only got to look at
the map of Europe to
see how dangerous it
would have been to any
country which hap-
pened to be on bad
terms with France, if
the King of France had
been master, not only
of his own broad do-
minions, but also of the
great Spanish penin-
sula which shuts in the
western end of the
Mediterranean Sea.
But though the
quarrel about the
Spanish crown gave its
name to the war, the
war was really fought
by the people of Eng-
land, Holland, and
some of the German
States to protect them-
selves from the power-
ful and ambitious King
of France. Louis XIV., without doubt, fought for glory and the love
of conquest, and Maryborough was right when he advised the queen
that it was the duty and interest of England to help those who
fought against King Louis.
At the beginning of Queen Anne's reign, so great was the power of
Maryborough, and so great was his influence over the queen, that,
though Marlborough himself was a Toiy, though the queen was a
friend of the Tories, and though her ministers were Tories, the duke
succeeded in persuading both the queen and her ministers to go on
with the war, and by so doing to please the Whigs.
JOHN CHURCHILL, DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH.
(From the mezzotint by J . Smith, after Sir Godfrey K.ne Her.}
562 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The war itself must always be memorable in the history of Eng-
land. For the first time since the use of gunpowder became
general, an English commander showed himself to be a real
master of the art of war. It may probably be said with truth that
the Duke of Marlborough was the greatest general this country ever
produced, and his greatness as a soldier was recognised, not only
by his own countrymen, but by ever}7 nation in Europe, whether
friend or foe. The French feared him, and his name became a
household word in France, where young and old caught up the
tune of the famous song, " Marlbrook s'en va-t-en guerre."1
The Dutch and the Protestants of Germany, however jealous they
might be of a foreigner, agreed to place the duke at the head of their
armies, knowing that he, and he alone, could lead them with success
against the experienced generals of Louis XIV.
Indeed, the genius of Marlborough showed itself almost as much in
his dealings with the Dutch and German generals with whom he had
to act, as in the skill with which he led his armies into battle. The
Dutch leaders especially, slow in their movements, jealous of interfer-
ence, and often mistrusting their English allies, gave the duke the
greatest trouble, and it was only by patience, by skilful flattery, and by
persuasion — sometimes accompanied by bribes — that Marlborough was
able to keep together the mixed army under his command.
One great man, however, proved to be an exception to the general
rule. In Prince Eugene of Savoy Marlborough found a skilful and de-
voted ally, on whom he could always depend, and from whose jealousy
he had nothing to fear.
The*Triumph of Marlborough.
"Great praise the Duke of Marlborough won.
Southey : " After Blenheim."
The first battle in the war was a surprise to all Europe. The French
armies, so long victorious, were considered almost invincible. The
French generals were reckoned to be the most experienced and the
most skilful in Europe. Great, therefore, was the rejoicing in England
when the news arrived that on the 13th of August, 1704, the Duke of
1 " Matlbrook sen va-t-en guerre" ("Marlbrook has gone to the wars"). The air is still
very well known to us in England under the title of " We won't go home til) morning," with the
familiar chorus of " He's a jolly good fellow."
564 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Marlborough and Prince Eugene had totally defeated a great French
army at Blenheim, a village lying on the river Danube, in Bavaria.
Two years later another great victory at Ramillies, in Belgium
(May 23rd, 1706), compelled the French to withdraw from the
Netherlands. A victory by Prince Eugene at Turin, in the north of
Italy, drove the French out of that country. On every side Louis, so
THE ROCK OF GIBRALTAR FROM ALGECIRAS.
often victorious, saw himself defeated. But France was then, as she
is now, too great and strong a nation to be really beaten in a single
campaign.
The year after the victory of Ramillies the French gained several
successes over the Allies, and in the following year (1708) an expedition
was again prepared for the purpose of bringing over the " Pretender"
and invading England. Happily, the "Pretender" fell ill, and the
expedition came to nothing. But it was plain that the war must be
continued. Marlborough once more took the command, and on the
nth July defeated the French at Oudenarde, a town on the river
Scheldt, in Holland, and the victory »was followed by the siege and
capture of the strong fortress of Lille (gth December, 1708).
THE " TORIES " IN OFFICE. 565
In 1709 the last and fiercest of the four great battles in which
Marlborough proved victorious was fought at Malplaquet, in Belgium
(September nth). The losses on both sides were very great, that of
the Allies amounting to no less than 20,000 men.
The victories of Marlborough will always be remembered — and
justly remembered — by the people of England. They were the means
of preserving our country and the other Protestant States from being
crushed by the great military power of France. Our free government
and our present line of sovereigns are among the results which we owe
to the genius of Marlborough and the bravery of his troops. The
names of " Blenheim " and " Ramillies " have long been kept alive in the
Royal Navy, and to this day are borne by two of the most powerful of
our warships.
But there was one other victory won in the same year as that in
which the battle of Blenheim was fought, which, though it was gained
with little fighting and little loss, has left us a prize almost as great as
that which Marlborough's splendid campaign secured.
We have on the opposite page a picture of the noble outline of the
Rock of Gibraltar, the huge fortress which guards the western entrance
to the Mediterranean, and on the highest point of which the flag of
Britain flies. It was in the year 1704 that Admiral Sir George Rooke,
being with his fleet in the Mediterranean, attacked, and captured
almost without resistance, the fortress of Gibraltar, then in the hands
of the Spanish allies of Louis XIV.
From that da}' to this Gibraltar has remained in British hands.
For many years it guarded the Straits, and was the most important
fortress in all the British Empire. It remains as a great monument of
our success in the days of Queen Anne, and it may one day become
again as important and valuable a fortress as it was in days gone by.1
The Tories in Office.
11 When royal Anne became our queen,
The Church of England's glory,
Another face of things was seen,
And I became a Tory."
" The Vicar of Bray," written 1720.
But while Marlborough had been so successfully carrying on the
war abroad, his position at home had been growing weaker and
1 The fortress of Gibraltar, having been taken by Sir George Rooke in 1704, was ceded to
Great Britain by Spain by the Treaty of Utrecht, signed in the year 1713.
566 If j STORY OF ENGLAND.
weaker. The Tories, as we have seen, disliked the war from the
very beginning, and it was only Marlborough's great influence with
the queen which had enabled him to carry it on at all.
Gradually the duke found that his old friends were leaving him,
and that the Tories in the House of Commons lost no opportunity
of making attacks upon him. This naturally led him to make friends
with the Whigs, who he knew would support him in carrying on the
war. In the year 1707 he persuaded the queen to call several of the
Whigs into the ministry. A few of the Tories, among whom were
Harley, afterwards known as Earl of Oxford, and St. John, afterwards
known as Lord Bolingbroke, remained in the ministry. But it has
always been found difficult for a Government to succeed when its
members are not really agreed, and it soon became clear that the
Whigs and Tories in the new Government were not agreed.
Harley was the first to see that the time had come when the power
of the Duke of Marlborough over the queen might be destroyed.
Marlborough's power had come through his wife, and his enemies
now tried to destroy it by the same means. Queen Anne had made
a new favourite, Miss Abigail Hill— or Mrs. Masham, as she became —
cousin of the duchess.
The new favourite lost no opportunity of stirring up the queen's
displeasure against her old friend, " Mrs. Freeman," by saying all the
evil she could of the Whigs, and praising the Tories. The queen, who
was really a very strong Tory, readily listened to these attacks, the
more so as she had long been tired of the bitter tongue and quarrel-
some temper of the Duchess of Marlborough. From this time the fate
of Marlborough was sealed, and it was not long before his enemies
succeeded in bringing about his downfall.
The favour of the queen having once been won by Mrs. Masham,
and lost by the duchess, the disgrace of Marlborough and of the
Whigs on whom he now relied as his best supporters in carrying on
the war, was only a question of time. The downfall was hastened by
an event which took place in London, and which stirred up the people
as well as the queen against the Whigs.
This event was the trial of a clergyman named Dr. Sacheverell. It
was a small matter in itself, but men's minds were so excited that it
led to important consequences. Sacheverell was a Tory, and a
clergyman of the Established Church. He preached a sermon at
St. Paul's, in which he spoke in favour of the Divine Right of Kings,
and of the duty of their subjects to obey them, whatever they said
or did.
The Whigs were angry with Sacheverell, for they said that such
THE PALL OF MARLXOKOUGH. 567
teaching was an attack upon the Revolution, and upon the law as
it had been settled by the Revolution. So angry were the Whigs that,
instead of putting Sacheverell on his trial in the ordinary way, they
went so far as to bring an " impeachment " against him.
As a result, Sacheverell was forbidden to preach for three years,
but the attack which had been made upon him was looked upon by
all the Tories as an attack upon the Church ; and as the Church was a
great power, and very popular in the country, a strong feeling was
aroused against the Whigs. There were fierce riots in London, and
some of the chief Whig ministers were driven out of office. A new
Parliament was summoned, in which the Tories had a majority, and
Harley, leader of the Tories, was made Prime Minister.
The Fall of Marlboroug-h.
"Marlbrook, the prince of commanders,
Has gone to the wars in Flanders;
His fame is like Alexander's,
But when will he ever come home ? "
Song: "Marlbrook."
Now that the Tories were in power, it was clear that the war which
they had so long disliked would be brought to an end, and that, in
order to put a stop to the war, Marlborough must first be dismissed
from his office.
The queen, who was strongly on the side of Harley and the new
ministers, dismissed the Duchess of Marlborough from Court, took
away from her all her offices and honours, and refused to see her.
Harley was made Earl of Oxford, as a sign of the queen's favour, and
terms of peace were proposed to King Louis.
Marlborough now came back to England, to find that not only was
the war in which he had earned so much distinction to come to an end,
but that he himself was to be disgraced and deprived of his command.
A whole set of charges was brought against him. It was declared that
he had made a dishonest use of the money which had been voted by
Parliament for the purpose of carrying on the war. He was dismissed
from his command, and the Duke of Ormonde, who was suspected of
being a Jacobite, was put at the head of the arm)'.
Only one more thing remained to be done to bring the war to an
end. The majority of the House of Lords had up to this time been
56S HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
friendly to the Whigs and to Maryborough, -it was necessary to get
the consent of the House of Lords as well as that of the House of
Commons. By the advice of the Earl of Oxford twelve new peers were
created for the purpose of giving the Tories a majority in the House of
Lords as well as in the House of Commons.
All was now ready for the last step to be taken, and on the 3ist of
March, 1713, a peace was signed at Utrecht, in Holland, by which the
long struggle between England and France was for a time ended. The
terms of the peace were not favourable to England, whose armies had
been so successful throughout the war. But there can be little doubt
that among the ministers who made the peace there were some who
were traitors to the country which they pretended to serve. It is
known that one of them — St. John, afterwards Lord Bolingbroke — was at
this very time plotting for the return of the " Pretender " ; and it is
believed that Harley, Earl of Oxford, was also trying to make terms
with the " Pretender," so that he might have a friend in case the
Stuarts should, after all, come to the throne again.
It was not wonderful, therefore, that a ministry whose members
were actually plotting with the enemy should not have been very
earnest in standing out for the interests of England.
But though the Peace of Utrecht was not very favourable in its terms
to this country, it gave us three important possessions — namely, the
island, of Minorca, in the Mediterranean, the fortress of Gibraltar, and
the island of Newfoundland, all of which had been claimed by our
enemies, but which were now admitted 'to belong to Great Britain.
Minorca has been lost, but Gibraltar and Newfoundland are still part o£
the British Empire.
The Last of the Stuarts.
"Be it enacted that— The succession of the Monarchy of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain, and of the Dominions thereto belonging, after
her Most Sacred Majesty, and in default of issue of her Majesty, be,
remain, and continue to the Most Excellent Princess Sophia, Electress and
Duchess Dowager of Hanover, and the Heirs of her Body being Protestants,
upon which the Crown of England is settled by an Act of Parliament
made in England in the twelfth year of his late Majesty King William
the Third."— 5 Anne, Cap. VIII., Art. 2.
The queen's health was now fast failing, and it was clear that she
had but a short time to live. She had no child to succeed her, and for
a time the country was in real danger of a return of the " Pretender."
THE LAST OF THE STUARTS.
569
St. John, now Lord Bolingbroke, who had become Anne's most trusted
minister, would certainly have called back the Stuarts on the queen's
death if he had been allowed to do so.
But the greatness of the danger alarmed the Whigs, and they
decided to act at once while there was time. The Duke of Argyle and
the Duke of Somerset made their way to the palace of Kensington,
where the queen lay dying. As members of the Privy Council, they
had the right to an audience of the sovereign at any time. They now
claimed their right,
and were brought
into the chamber of
the dying queen.
They told her plainly
what was the danger
which threatened the
country, and how the
Protestant cause, of
which she had been
during her life the
great supporter,
would be ruined if
the Act of Succession
were not obeyed,
and if the Elector
of Hanover were not
made king upon her
death.
There was one
way, and one way
only, they declared,
by which the " Pre-
tender " could be prevented from returning, and that was to ap-
point Whig ministers, who would insist upon the Act of Succession
being obeyed. Anne listened to these counsels, and agreed to them.
She gave the " W7hite Staff," which was the sign of office, to the Duke
of Shrewsbury, and made him Lord Treasurer, or head of the Govern-
ment. The cause of the Protestant Succession had been saved. The
new Wrhig ministers immediately sent a message to the Elector George,
bidding him come over with all speed to England, and they made
preparations to receive him and to put down any resistance which
might be offered.
Qn the 1st of August, 1714, Queen Anne died,, in the fifty-first year of
GREAT SEAL OF QUEEN ANNE (OBVERSE).
570 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
her age and the thirteenth year of her reign. With her ended the line
of the Stuart Sovereigns, which began with her great-grandfather,
James I.
The Union with Scotland.
"The union of lakes— the union of lands —
The Union of States none can sever —
The union of hearts — the union of hands —
And the flag of our Union for ever!"
G. P. Morris : " The Flag of our Union."
A great part of the pages which contain an account of Queen Anne's
reign has been taken up with the story of wars on the Continent and
disputes between the two great parties at home. There was, however,
one important event which took place in this reign which was brought
about without war, and about which the two great parties for once
managed to agree. This event is such an important one, and has
had such a great and lasting influence upon our history, that it must
be specially mentioned.
It was in the year 1707, the sixth year of the reign of Queen Anne,
that the Act of Union between England and Scotland was passed. It
may be asked, What need was there of any Act of Union between the
two countries now that they both had the same Sovereign ? But we
have read enough in this book to make it quite clear that, though the
crown of England and the crown of Scotland were both worn by the
same king or queen, there was as yet very little real union between the
two countries. On the contrary, there had been perpetual disputes
and constant fighting, and the English Parliament and the Scottish
Parliament had not only been quite distinct bodies, but had been
strongly opposed to one another.
At the beginning of Queen Anne's reign there was a very angry
feeling in Scotland against the English Government. A large number
of people in Scotland, moved by the persuasions of a man named
Paterson, had joined together to send out an expedition to the Isthmus
of Darien, the narrow strip of land which divides the Atlantic from
the Pacific and which connects the continents of North and South
America. Those who joined in the expedition believed that Darien
would become a great and powerful colony, and that its possession
would bring great wealth and strength to the kingdom of Scotland. -v
THE UNION WITH SCOTLAND.
57i
The English Government, however, looked upon tho expedition
with little favour. They knew that it was sure to rouse the anger of
the Spaniards, and would probably bring about a war which would
injure English trade. The Spaniards did, in fact, attack the Scottish
colonists. The colonists were defeated and ruined, and the whole
expedition ended in total failure and in the loss of very large sums
of money.
The Scots, smarting from their loss, declared that the English
Government had
destroyed the ex-
pedition, and the
feeling against Eng-
land became very
bitter. The Scottish
Parliament set to
work to thwart the
English ministers.
They refused to pass
an Act of Succession
declaring that the
Princess Sophia and
her heirs should suc-
ceed to the throne of
Scotland, and they
showed themselves
unfriendly in many
other ways.
The English
ministers prepared GREAT SEAL OF QUEEN ANNE (REVERSE).
to punish the Scots
for their unfriendliness. A Bill was actually brought into Parliament
declaring that all Scotsmen should be looked upon as foreigners in
England, that heavy duties should be levied upon goods crossing the
Border from Scotland ; and orders were given that troops should
occupy the Border fortresses as if Scotland were already an open
enemy. The Scots were now in their turn alarmed by the threats of
their powerful neighbour, and, happily, wise counsels prevailed.
There was already a large party in both countries which desired to
see a real union between England and Scotland, and steps were now
taken to carry the wishes of these parties into effect. Commissioners
were appointed by the Parliaments of the two countries to arrange the
terms on which the Union should take place.
572 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
There was a great deal of " give and take " on both sides, but on
the whole the terms were very favourable to Scotland, the weaker
country. So favourable were they that in January, 1707, the Act of Union
passed the Scottish Parliament by a majority of 41 in a house of 179
members. It had now only to pass through the English Parliament ;
and so skilful were the ministers in placing the matter before the two
Houses that, despite the bitter feeling between Whigs and Tories, the
Acl was passed with scarcely any opposition, and became from that
time the law of the land.
The first article of the Act is in these words : — " That the Kingdoms
of England and Scotland shall upon the First day of May, which shall be in
the year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seven, and for ever after, be
united into one Kingdom in the name of Great Britain ; and that the Ensigns
Armorial of the said united Kingdom be such as her Majesty shall appoint,
and the Crosses of George and Andrew be conjoined in such manner as her
Majesty shall think fit, and used in all Flags, Banners, Standards and
Ensigns, both at sea and land" l
The following are the principal points in the Act of Union between
England and Scotland : —
(1) The kingdoms of England and Scotland were to become one
kingdom, under the title of " Great Britain."
(2) The Flags of the two countries were to be joined together.
The Red Cross of St. George with the White Cross, or Saltire, of
St. Andrew.2
(3) The Parliaments of England and Scotland were to be united,
and the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain was to sit
thenceforward at Westminster.
(4) There were to be forty-five Scottish members in the House of
Commons.
(5) Sixteen of the Scottish peers were to be elected by the votes of all
the peers of Scotland, and were to take their places in the House of
Lords. All peers created by the Crown in future were to be peers of
the United Kingdom, and not of England or Scotland.
(6) Scotland was to take its share in bearing the debt of England,
but a large sum (£398,000), was to be paid by England to discharge the
debt of Scotland and to repay the losses of those who had suffered
from the failure of the Darien expedition.
Such were the main points of this great Act of Parliament which
has thrown open to Scotland the wealth and resources of England, and
has given to its people a full share in the great naval power of the
1 5 Anne, chap, v., art. i. z See Frontispiece.
MAGNA CHART A RE- EXACTED. 573
southern kingdom; an Act which, on the other hand, has given to
England the energy, the courage, and the enterprise of Scotsmen, who
have taken their full share in founding, strengthening, and keeping
that great British Empire to which both Englishmen and Scotsmen are
proud to belong.
CHAPTER LX.
CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF THE STUART PERIOD,
Magna Charta Re-enacted.
"And we will, that if any judgment be given from henceforth, con-
trary to the Points of the Charter aforesaid * by the Justice, or by any
other of our Ministers that hold Pleas before them against the Points of
the Charters, it shall be undone, and holden for nought." — 25 Edivard I.,
Chap. II.
IF we look back over the history of the Stuart Period, and ask
ourselves for what it ought chiefly to be remembered, we shall
probably say that it is to be remembered as a time when very great
and important changes were made in the form of government of this
country. It may be called, therefore, a period of great " Constitutional
changes."" If we have read the chapters which have gone before with
care, we shall already be familiar with these changes, which are
described in their proper places as they occurred.
But it will, perhaps, make it easier to recollect what the changes
were, and to understand their true importance, if we collect them
together into a chapter by themselves. At the end of the Tudor
Period we found Queen Elizabeth reigning as an almost absolute
sovereign, Parliament with scarcely any real power, and the queen
taking the foremost part in everything which concerned the government
of the country. The Divine Right of kings to rule was accepted as
a truth which could hardly be questioned, and with the Divine Right
of kings to govern there had also come " the right divine of kings to
govern wrong."
When the Stua*t line came to an end on the death of Queen Anne,
all these things had changed. Parliament had become all-powerful.
1 Magna Charta and the Charter of the Forest.
574 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The Divine Right of Kings was an exploded idea in which only a few
old-fashioned Jacobites believed. The sovereign still took some part
in governing the country, but a much less active part than in Tudor
days. It was the king's ministers who really carried on the business
of the country, and who were responsible for the success or failure
of the king's government.
Such were the principal changes which had been made during the
in years of which we have been reading. As we know, there had
been many struggles before the new state of things could be brought
about or be made part of the law of the land. More than four hundred
years before Charles I. came to the throne, Magna Charta had declared
that taxes should not be raised without the consent of the Council
of the kingdom, and that no one should be imprisoned without cause
and without trial by his peers. But though the Kings of England had
over and over again confirmed the promises made in Magna Charta, it
was still found necessary, in the time of the Stuarts, to fight for those
very liberties for which the Barons had contended under Stephen
Langton.
It was to insure that the promise made in Magna Charta should not
any more be broken that the " Habeas Corpus Act " was passed in
1679. The Habeas Corpus Act made it absolutely illegal to detain a
prisoner in gaol without trial; and, what was more, it made every
person whose duty it was to carry out the law fear the consequences
which would befall him if he did not do his duty.
To this day the Habeas Corpus Act is acknowledged to be one
of the greatest protections which a British citizen enjoys. If a person
be imprisoned or detained in custody without proper trial or legal
authority, the prisoner or his friends may apply to any judge, or to
any one of a number of persons named in the Habeas Corpus Act, for
a writ of Habeas Corpus directing the person who has charge of the
prisoner to bring him up for trial. The judge dare not refuse to order
the writ to be issued, for, by the Act, he may be severely punished if
he does so. The person to whom the writ is sent dare not disobey it.
He is bound to bring up his prisoner for trial, and knows that he, too,
will be severely punished if he does not immediately obey.
The Petition of Right and the Bill of Rights have made it clear that
it is contrary to the law for the king or queen to keep up a standing
army in this country in time of peace, without the consent of Parlia-
ment. There can, therefore, no longer be any danger of the Crown
raising an army to put down Parliament or to oppress the people.
By the same Act it has been made illegal for the Crown to raise
taxes without the consent of Parliament.
575
Responsibility of Ministers -The "Cabinet.'*
"The king can do no wrong."
The formation of the " Cabal " Ministry in the time of Charles II. was
an important event, because it led to the plan of governing by a
Cabinet Council, which is now the way in which the government of our
country is carried on. The Cabinet is a small committee of from
twelve to eighteen members chosen from amongst the ministers of the
Crown. The Cabinet conducts its councils in secret, and it decides
what shall be the policy of the Government in all matters. It is the
Cabinet Council which really governs the United Kingdom, and which
plays a very important part in governing the whole of the British
Empire.
It is to the Revolution that we owe government by party and the
responsibility of ministers. We have just said that the Cabinet really
governed the country, but the Cabinet is appointed from among the
members of one party only, and it is from the party which has the
majority in the House of Commons that the Cabinet is chosen. So it
is really true, in a sense, to say that it is a party that governs the
country.
Together with party government came, very naturally, Responsibility
of Ministers. When once it became clear that the Government must
change every time the majority in the House of Commons changed,
the king or queen could not be expected to be made answerable for
things that were done by both parties. The Whigs 'invented a plan
which got over the difficulty. They said, " It is the duty of the king or
queen to rule only with the advice of his or her ministers. As long as
the sovereign follows the advice of ministers, the ministers, and not the
Crown, shall be responsible for all that is done." In order to insure
this plan being faithfully followed, it was decided that a minister's
name should always be signed after that of the sovereign, so that
all the world might know who was responsible for any particular act.
576 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Here is an example of King Edward's signature, which will show
what is meant : —
"fi&warfc, 1R.3*
" Given at Our Court at St. James's, this Eighth Day of July,
One Thousand Nine Hundred and One, and in the First Year of
Our Reign.
"By His Majesty's Command.
" GEORGE HAMILTON."
In books about the " Constitution " of England we often find it said
that " the king can do no wrong." It is not hard, after what we have
just read, to understand what this means. It means that if a wrong
thing be done by order of the king or queen, the whole blame must be
thrown upon the minister by whose advice the thing has been done, and
not upon the sovereign. The sovereign does right to act according
to the advice of the minister ; the minister does wrong in giving the
sovereign bad advice. Hence " the king can do no wrong."
The House of Commons and the People of England.
"So may it ever be with tyrants."1
We have spoken in many of the preceding chapters of what was done
by Parliament and by the House of Commons. We should not, how-
ever, understand the history of Stuart times rightly if we believed the
House of Commons to have been the same kind of body that it is now.
In the time of the Stuarts, the members of the House of Commons
were elected by a very small number of the people of England, and, in
many cases, members were not really elected at all, but were appointed
to their seats by the king or by some great lord.
In several instances, the right to sit in Parliament for a particular
place was looked upon as belonging to a particular family. There was
no such thing as an election such as we see nowadays, in which nearly
every man in town or country has the right to give a vote. It was
only in some of the large towns that there was anything like a modern
election.
It must not be supposed, however, that, despite all these differences
between the House of Commons in the time of the Stuarts and the
House of Commons in our own day, the majority in the House did not
1 A transition of a famous Latin phrase. "Sic sewfer Tyrannis.
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS AND THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. 577
often represent the real feeling of the majority of the people of
England. On the other hand, there can be no doubt that on many
occasions the House of Commons did not at all represent the majority
of the people of England, but only the views of a very small class in
the country,:
As to the Revolution itself, to which we owe so much, it was begun
and carried out, not by the people of England, nor, indeed, by the
House of Commons, but by a few wealthy and powerful men, most of
whom sat in the House of Lords. It is probable that much of what
was done by the great lords who brought about the Revolution was
done with selfish views. At the same time, it must be admitted that
there were among these great lords, and those who supported them,
many who really risked their lives and their fortunes in support of the
cause which they believed to be the cause of liberty. They fought
to bring about a change which they truly thought was necessary
for the safety of their country, its religion, its laws, and its liberties.
The United Kingdom certainly owes a great debt to the makers of
the Revolution of 1688.
Nor must we forget to speak of the great Constitutional change
which was made in the reign of the last of the Stuarts— namely, the
" Union " between England and Scotland, and the creation of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain.
One or two other points ought to be noticed in a chapter which
speaks of the Constitutional lessons which are to be learnt from this
period. The history of the period teaches us very plainly that Tyranny,
under whatever name, is hateful to the English people.
They fought against King Charles and allowed him to be put to
death because he acted like a tyrant. They allowed the House of
Lords to be destroyed because it supported King Charles ; but when
the House of Commons, which then became sole master of the nation,
acted like a tyrant, the country gladly saw the members of the House
of Commons driven into the street by a party of musketeers. And
once more, when the Army which had got rid of the Parliament,
sought in its turn to ride roughshod over the people of England, the
people of England, with one voice, declared that military tyranny was
as bad as the tyranny of a king or the tyranny of a Parliament.
Nor did Englishmen rest contented until they had built up for their
country a steady, reasonable form of government, in which every part
of the nation took its share, and in which the tyranny of either king,
Lords, Commons, or Army was, as they believed, made impossible.
5J8 HitroxY OF ENGLAND,
CHAPTER LXI.
LITERATURE !N THE STUART PERIOD
Milton, the Puritan Poet.
"Milton, thou shouldst be living at this hour;
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh I raise us up, return to us again ;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart:
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea ;
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free;
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on itself did lay."— Wordsworth.
IN the next two chapters will be found a very short account of some
of the great writers who lived during the Stuart Period. It is a good
thing to know something about the life of a great poet or a great prose-
writer, and to understand something of the time in which he lived
and of the part which he played during his lifetime. Every writer,
whether he be a poet or a writer of prose, owes a great deal of his
thoughts to the things which he sees going on around *him and to
the circumstances in which he himself lives. The very language
which he uses is but the repetition in a beautiful or in an orderly
form of the words which he hears around him in his daily life.
But the real way to know a great author is to read his books;
and no one should pretend to know anything about Milton, Dryden,
or Addison, or any other great authors, until he has read the works
which made those authors famous. But though in a book like this we
cannot read the actual poems of Milton, of Dryden, or of Addison,
we can, at any rate, learn who the writers were ; and when we read
"Paradise Lost" "Alexander's Feast, ' or the "Spectator," we shall be
MILTON, THE PURITAN POET.
579
much better able to understand what we read, and to follow the
meaning of many things which would otherwise puzzle us. We
shall learn also why the language used by Dryden is so different
from that used by Milton, and why the language of Addison is, in
its turn, so different from that of Dryden.
In speaking of John Milton, first of all the great writers of the
Stuart Period, we must not forget that even a greater poet than he
actually lived for several years in the Stuart Period, and that
Shakespeare, who died in the year 1616, not only lived thirteen years
under King James's rule,
but that some of his most
famous plays, such as " The
Tempest" " Macbeth," and
"King Lear" appeared
during the reign. But we
have already spoken of
Shakespeare in the story
of the Tudor Period, and
it was right to do so, for
the thoughts and the lan-
guage of Shakespeare were
the thoughts and the lan-
guage which he had learnt
to use during the reign of
the great queen to whom
he paid so many compli-
ments in his poems. Shake-
speare is usually called an
Elizabethan writer, and such
he really was.
The same thing may
be said of the writings of
Bacon, who, as we know,
lived through the reign of James I. and on into the reign of
Charles I., and of whose best-known works " The Advancement of
Learning" (1605) and the " Novum Organum" (1620) appeared during
the reign of James I. His writings and his thoughts really belong
to the time of Elizabeth more than to the century which fol-
lowed her death, and it is for that reason that the writings of
Bacon, as well as the writings of Shakespeare, have been mentioned
in the story of the Tudor Period, and are not spoken of at any length
in this Part, which deals with the Stuart Period.
JOHN MILTON.
(From the miniature by Samuel Cooper.)
5 8° HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
If it were asked who was the most famous English writer of the
seventeenth century, few people would have any doubt as to the
answer. All would agree in giving the name of John Milton. Milton
was born in the year 1608, in London. He was the son of a scrivener,
or writer of legal documents. He was educated at St. Paul's Grammar
School, and went to college at the University of Cambridge. Through-
•out his life he took the side of the Puritans, and he was on several
occasions employed by the government of the Commonwealth to fill
public offices. He was made Secretary to the Council which was
appointed to carry on the government in the year 1649, the first year
of the Commonwealth.
At the Restoration he fell into great misery, for he was one of
the few supporters of the Commonwealth who were specially excepted
by name from the pardon given by the king to those who had taken
part in the war. He was imprisoned, arid, to add to his misfortunes,
his sight — which he had injured by overstudy when he was a young
man— gradually failed him, and he became quite blind. Towards
the end of his life he was released, and lived in poverty and retire-
ment till the year of his death, in 1674. He died at the age of sixty-
six, and was buried in St. Giles', Cripplegate ; his monument may be
seen in the Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey.
It is not, however, as a politician that Milton is remembered, but
as one of the greatest of England's poets. Milton was a Puritan, whc
lived among the Puritans, heard their speech, and understood their
thoughts. It was natural, therefore, that in his poetry he should speak
of religion, which formed so great a part of the life of the Puritans,
and that the language he used should frequently be taken from the
Bible, from which the Puritans so often quoted, and which they held
so dear.
But Milton was also a scholar who had been educated at the
University of Cambridge. He had learnt Latin and Greek,
and was familiar with the writings of the great Greek and Latin
authors. It is not strange, therefore, that in his poetry we shoulo'
find many words and thoughts which are taken from the Bible side
by side with many which are taken from the writers of Greece and
Rome.
In his beautiful poem of " Lycidas " Milton uses a Greek name
to describe the subject of the poem — his friend Edward King, who
was drowned at sea. The poem is a lament over the unhappy death
of his friend, and in almost every line of it we find names and
thoughts and words which are taken from the old Latin poets, and
which can only be properly understood by those who have read
MILTON, THE PURITAN POET. 581
something of the writings of Roman authors. Here are a few lines
taken from the poem to show how true this is : —
'•' For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime.
Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer :
Who would not sing for Lycidas ? He knew,
Himself, to sing, and build the lofty rhyme.
He must not float upon his watery bier
Unwept and welter to the parching wind,
Without the meed of some melodious tear.
Begin, then, sisters of the sacred well
That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring :
Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string ;
Hence with denial vain, and coy excuse :
So may some gentle muse
With lucky words favour my destined urn ;
And, as he passes, turn,
And bid fair peace to be my sable shroud.
For we were nursed upon the self-same hill,
Fed the same flock, by fountain, shade, and rill."
The " Sisters of the sacred well " are the " Muses " — who the
ancients believed were the Goddesses of the Arts, and especially of
Poetry. Jove, or Jupiter, was the great king and chief of all the gods
of Greece and Rome.
Again, the beautiful lines which speak of the uncertainty of life
and the suddenness of death can only be understood by those who
know the ancient story of the Greeks and Romans — that the life of
man is a thread spun by one of the " Fates " — and that as Clotho, the
spinner, spins the thread her sister Atropos stands beside her with a
pair of shears in her hand and suddenly cuts the thread, and thereby
ends the life of a man. Atropos is " The fury with the abhorred shears "
who "slits the thin-spun life." But in this poem of "Lycidas," and
still more in others of his great poems, are to be found proofs that
Milton was a great reader of the Bible. One of his most beautiful
and well-known poems is the Christmas hymn which begins with
the lines —
" This is the month, and this the happy morn
Wherein the Son of Heaven's Eternal King
*****
Our great redemption from above did bring."
This poem was written in 1629, when Milton was a young man of
twenty-one years.
But it was in his old age, when his sight had left him, that Milton
wrote his greatest poem, called " Paradise Lost." In " Paradise Lost'
582 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
is told the story of the creation of man, of his sin in the Garden of
Eden, and of his punishment. The poem describes the story as
it is told in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament. It is a
noble and beautiful work, full of great thoughts, and of lines which
have become famous wherever the English language is known.
It is not all of equal interest, because parts of it are taken up
with describing the religious quarrels of the times, quarrels which were
of great interest to Milton, a strong Puritan, and a man who had
taken part in the Rebellion, but which are not of such great interest
now. There is, however, a great deal of " Paradise Lost " which
is still of the deepest interest to all who read it. Few lines in the
whole poem are better known than those which end the story, and tell
how Adam and Eve, driven forth from the Garden of Eden by the
angel with the fiery sword, made their way together into the world
beyond.
"They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld
Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,
Waved over by that flaming brand ; the gate
With dreadful faces throng'd, and fiery arms.
Some natural tears they dropt, but wiped them soon ;
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their Guide :
They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow
Through Eden took their solitary way."
Among the other famous poems of Milton we may remember his
" U 'Allegro ," a poem singing the praises of mirth and innocent
pleasure, and "// Penseroso" a poem on melancholy.
Puritan Prose-Writers.
"An' thus it was : I, writing of the way
And race of saints in this our Gospel day,
Fell suddenly into an allegory
About their journey and the way to glory."
Bunyan's Apology for his Book.
JOHN BUNYAN.
Another great Puritan writer of this period was John Bunyan, the
famous author of The Pilgrim's Progress. He was born in 1628, in
PURITAN PROSE-WRITERS.
the reign of Charles I., and died in 1688, the last year of James II.
He, like his father before him, had been a tinker, and lived in Bedford-
shire. He was an honest, God-fearing man, learned in his Bible. He
taught and preached repentance to his countrymen, but by his preach-
ing he offended many persons, and was thrown into Bedford gaol.
There he lay for three years, and it was while in gaol that he wrote the
great allegory of " The Pilgrim's Progress," which has made his name
so famous.
The book describes
how " Christian," and
" Faithful," and
"Hopeful" journeyed
on their way from the
City of Destruction to
the Celestial City ; how
Christian fell into the
Slough of Despond ;
how he bore and at
last lost the burden
of his sins, which was
heavy upon his back ;
how he was tempted
in Vanity Fair, and
was taken by Giant
Despair at Doubting
Castle ; and how at
last, after passing
through The Valley of
the Shadow, he crossed
the River, and came
to the Celestial City.
The story is an alle-
gory describing the life of a Christian man, his fight with evil, his trust
in God, and his passage through death to Everlasting Life.
All these things, and many more, are told in the story of "Christian,"
" Faithful," " Hopeful," and " Christiana," Christian's wife. They are
written in most pure and beautiful English, which every English man
and woman, and almost every English child, can understand. Few
books have ever been written in the English language which have
been more widely read and better loved than John Bunyan's
" Pilgrim's Progress." In 1672 Bunyan was released from prison. He
died sixteen years later in London, in the year 1688.
JOHN BUNYAN.
584 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
THE TRANSLATORS OF THE BIBLE.
We must not forget, in speaking of the great religious writers of this
time, to mention the Translators of the Bible, who have given us the
familiar words of the Authorised Version. They shared with Milton and
Bunyan the power of writing clear and beautiful English, which
has remained part of our English language, and which will be
remembered as long as English is read or spoken.
It was in the reign of King Charles II. that the simple and.
beautiful prayer which comes in the service for "Those at Sea" was
written. This prayer, which is read every day on every ship in the
Royal Navy, was added to the Prayer- Book in the time of King
Charles II. It is heard, read, and repeated by many who are not
in the habit of using the Church Prayer- Book, and part of it may
be quoted here, for it refers to one of the greatest Institutions of
our country.
" O Eternal Lord God, who alone spreadest out the heavens, and rulest
the raging of the sea; who hast compassed the waters with bounds until
day and night come to an end ; Be pleased to receive into thy Almighty
and most gracious protection the persons of us thy servants, and the Fleet
in which we serve. Preserve us from the dangers of the sea, and from
the violence of the enemy ; that we may be a safeguard unto our most gracious
Sovereign Lord, King Edward,1 and his Dominions, and a security for such'*
as pass on the seas upon their lawful occasions.'"
Other Poets and Prose- Writers of the Early Stuart Period.
Protus the King speaks to the Poet —
"Thou leauest much behind, while I leave nought
Thy life stays in the poems men shall sing,
The pictures men shall study." — Browning : " Cleon."
JOHN DRYDEN.
Among the great writers of the Stuart time must be mentioned
the poet Dryden, who was born in the year 1631, when Charles I.
was king, and who died in 1700, just before Queen Anne came to
the throne. Dryden's poetry varies greatly, both in beauty and
in interest. He wrote several long poems, such as " The Hind and the
1 In the time of King Charles the words used were, of course, "our most gracious Sovereign
Lord, King Charles."
DRYDEN. 585
Panther" and "Absalom and Achitophel" which were really political
poems, and referred to things which were going on at the time. The
names, which were taken from the Bible, or from Latin or Greek
stories, were really used to describe people who were alive at the time.
Thus, in one of the poems just mentioned, Absalom is only another
name for the Duke of Monmouth, Achitophel for the Earl of Sunder-
land. These political poems were of greater interest when they first
appeared than they are now, but there are in them passages which are
very finely written, and which will always be remembered.
They also contain many short, witty phrases which have never been
forgotten. Such is the well-known description of the false patriot in
the lines which tell us of the man who —
" Usurped a patriot's all-atoning name.
So easy still it proves in factious times
With public zeal to cancel private crimes."
Dryden also wrote many poetical translations of the old Latin
poets, but it is by some of his shorter poems that he will always be
best known. Of these the most famous are the splendid poems,
" The Ode to St. Cecilia," and " Alexander's Feast " or the " Power
of Music," which begins with the lines —
" Twas at the royal feast for Persia won
By Philip's warlike son :
Aloft in awful state
The godlike hero sate
On his imperial throne ;
His valiant peers were placed around ;
Their brows with roses and with myrtles bound
(So should desert in arms be crowned).
The lovely Thais, by his side,
Sate like a blooming Eastern bride,
In flower of youth and beauty's pride.
Happy, happy, happy pair !
None but the brave,
None but the brave,
None but the brave deserve the fair."
The last lines of the poem — in which the coming of St. Cecilia, the
Inventress of the " Organ," is described — are very familiar : —
" Thus long ago,
Ere heaving bellows learned to blow,
While organs yet were mute,
Timotheus, to his breathing flute
And sounding lyre,
Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire.
586 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
At last divine Cecilia came,
Inventress of the vocal frame ;
The sweet enthusiast, from her sacred store
Enlarged the former narrow bounds,
And added length to solemn sounds,
With Nature's Mother-wit, and arts unknown before.
Let old Timotheus yield the prize,
Or both divide the crown;
He raised a mortal to the skies,
She drew an angel down."
CLARENDON.
(B. 1608, d. 1674.)
We must turn now from a great poet to a great writer of prose —
namely, the Earl of Clarendon — whose name has already often appeared
in these pages, and whom we know as a minister and as a politician.
It is, however, as a writer of the "History of the Rebellion" that
Clarendon is most justly famous. In that great book, not only does
he give us a full and interesting account of the stirring events which
happened during his lifetime, and in which be himself took no small
part, but he has there drawn for us a number of pictures of English-
men whom he knew which will always remain as wonderful examples
of clear and beautiful writing and of lively description.
We have already read (pages 484 and 503) the descriptions which
Clarendon has given us of two men whom he knew — the one Falkland,
a dear friend, and the other, Blake, a political enemy. We will here
only quote one more passage taken from the same description of Lord
Falkland.
This is how the historian closes his account of the life of the
gallant young soldier who fell fighting at the battle of Newbury : —
" Thus fell that incomparable young man, in the four-and-thirtieth year of his
age, having so much despatched the true business of life that the eldest rarely
attains to that immense knowledge, and the youngest enter not into the world
with more innocency. Whosoever leads such a life needs be the less anxious
upon how short a warning it is taken from him."
Happy, indeed, is the man who could have so lived as to deserve
such an epitaph, and happier still is he who, like Falkland, had a friend
who could write that epitaph in such words as those which were chosen
by Clarendon.
JOHN EVELYN AND SAMUEL PEPYS.
It would be hard to leave out of the list of the writers of this time
the names of John Evelyn and Samuel Pepys. John Evelyn (b. 1620,
d. 1706) was a gentleman of good position, whose famous house at
EVELYN — PEPYS — LOVELACE. 587
Wotton, in Surrey, still preserves many memorials of his active and
busy life. For many years he kept a Diary of the events which took
place, and this Diary is one of the best and most interesting accounts
of daily life in Stuart times.
Equally interesting, and far more amusing, is that wonderful book
" The Diary of Samuel Pepys" The son of a tailor, Samuel Pepys (b.
1632, d. 1703), succeeded by his own industry, mother-wit, and gcod
sense in raising himself to the position of a Minister of State and in
becoming Secretary to the Admiralty. His Diary, which was kept from
day to day from 1660 to 1669, was not intended to be seen by his
friends. He therefore puts into it many things which, no doubt, would
otherwise not have found a place there, but this fact makes it all the
more interesting and valuable to those who can read it now. Few
more delightful and amusing books have ever been written than
" Pepys's Diary," and no book gives a better picture of life in London
after the Restoration than this Diary of sharp-witted, sharp-tongued,
merry Samuel Pepys.
There is only room here to quote one short passage from " Pepys's
Diary," ] but it is worth putting in because it shows us what a pleasant,
cheery fellow the good Mr. Pepys was. He is going down the river to
see a friend when all the world in London was in terror of the Plague.
This is his account of his journey : — " By water at night late to Sir
G. Cartwright's, but, there being no oars to carry me, I was fain to call
a sculler that had a gentleman already in it, and he proved a man of
love to music, and he and I sung together the way down with great
pleasure. Above 700 died of the Plague this week."
LOVELACE.
A word must be said of some of the other writers in the early Stuart
period, because, though they are not such well-known persons as
Milton, Dry den, or Bunyan, their works are still known and read by
many. Richard Lovelace, the poet of the Cavaliers (b. 1618, d. 1658),
had hard treatment from the king he served, for he was sent to prison
by King Charles for presenting a petition during the time of the Long
Parliament. It was in his prison that he wrote the famous lines to his
lady-love, which begin —
" Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage,
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for a hermitage."
1 " Pepys's Diary," July I3th, 1665.
588 HISTORY OF. ENGLAND.
HERRICK.
Robert Herrick (b. 1591, d. 1674) was also a Royalist. He was a
clergyman, and Cromwell turned him out of his vicarage, to which he
only returned after the Restoration. He was the writer of many
pretty and graceful verses, of which one of the best known contains
the lines : —
" Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying ;
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.
" The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
The nearer he's to setting."
WALLER.
Edmund Waller (b. 1605, d. 1687) was a third Royalist writer of
pretty poetry which made him famous in his own day, and which
has prevented his name from being forgotten in our time.
COWLEY.
Abraham Cowley (b. 1618, d. 1667) was yet another Royalist poet,
who received but small reward from Charles II. for the services he
had rendered to the Royal cause. Very few of the poems of Cowley
have lived to the present day.
THE DRAMATISTS WYCHERLEY AND CONGREVE.
After the Restoration we come to the names of several English
writers who were very well known in their day as the writers of
plays. Among them the best known were William Wycherley (b. 1640,
d. 1715), author of " The Plain Dealer" and many other plays, and
William Congreve, a later writer (b. 1670, d. 1729).
The plays written by Wycherley and Congreve are very clever,
but there is much that is disagreeable and bad in them. The fact
is that under the rule of the Puritans men had been forbidden any
form of amusement. When the Restoration came, therefore, there
came with it a sudden change— too sudden, indeed, for the country.
Men were not content with reasonable amusements ; they thought
of nothing but self-indulgence, and they said and wrote many things
which had better have been left unsaid or unwritten- as though,
having gone to one extreme in the matter of strictness, they were
determined to go to the other in the way of freedom from all restraint
and good order,
BUR NET — ADDISON — STEELE. 589
BURNET.
We must not pass over the Revolution without mention of
Gilbert Burnet (b. 1643, d. 1715), whose famous history of the Refor-
mation in England was written in the reign of Charles II., and who
was most active in helping to bring about the change of government
which led to William III. being placed upon the throne. Besides
his history of the Reformation, Burnet wrote other well-known books
on religious questions. He was Bishop of Salisbury when he died.
CHAPTER LXII.
WRITERS OF THE LATER STUART PERIOD.
The Essayists.
"Writers, especially when they act in a body and in one direction,
have great influence on the public mind." — Burke.
So far we have spoken only of the writers whose names were known
before the Revolution, but we must not forget that Queen Anne was
a Stuart no less than Charles II., and that we must not, in the
history of the Stuart Period, fail to mention the famous writers of
Queen Anne's time. It is right to mention them apart from those
of whom we have spoken in the last chapter, for there is the greatest
possible difference between the writers of the last half of the seven-
teenth century and those of the first half of the eighteenth century.
It is in Queen Anne's time that we come to the great Essayists, the
writers of short papers or essays. Such were Joseph Addison (b. 1672,
d. 1719), Sir Richard Steele (b. 1671, d. 1729), and Jonathan Swift
(b. 1667, d. 1745).
ADDISON.
At a time when newspapers were scarcely known, short essays,
written by Addison, Steele, and Swift, were very widely read, and
had a great influence upon people's minds. In " The Tatler," a sort
of magazine which was started by Steele, Addison wrote a number of
famous papers in which he attacked his enemies the Tories ; but his
most famous writings were in "The Spectator," which first began to
590 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
appear in 1711. It was in the "Spectator" that the famous letters
of Sir Roger de Coverley appeared. Sir Roger was supposed to be
a kind-hearted, shrewd, country gentleman, who gave his views on
a variety of subjects — from politics and poetry to gardening, the
fashions, and the trimming of wigs. Besides his writings in the
"Tatler," "Spectator," and other magazines, Addison wrote a play
called " Cato" and a considerable amount of poetry.
SWIFT.
A still greater name than that of Addison is Jonathan Swift, who
was born in Dublin in the year 1667. Perhaps Swift is most famous
nowadays as the writer of " Gullivers Travels" a book which can
still be read by anyone who is in search of an amusing story; but
when Swift wrote the account of Gulliver among the Pigmies of
" Lilliput," or among the Giants of " Brobdingnag," he not only meant
to write a witty and amusing story, but to make his political enemies
smart by the sharp things he said of them, and to ridicule many of
the ideas and doings of Englishmen of his day.
The whole story of Gulliver is full of passages which were meant
to raise a laugh against Swift's bitter enemies the Whigs, or to win
favour for his friends the Tories. In order really to understand
" Gulliver's Travels," it is therefore necessary to know something of
the history of the time and to understand what are the thoughts
Swift had in his mind when he wrote.
Among the other famous writings of Swift are "A Tale of a Tub"
and " The Battle of the Books." These are, like " Gulliver's Travels,"
satirical writings in which the author attacks his enemies by means
of humorous stories and witty comparisons. So great was Swift's
power of saying sharp and witty things that he came to be looked
upon by the Tories as one of their best champions, and to be feared
by the Whigs whom he so bitterly attacked.
In 1713 Swift was made Dean of the Cathedral of St. Patrick in
Dublin. Irishmen are justly proud of the great and brilliant writer,
who was born and lived so long in the city of Dublin. Towards the
end of his life Swift lost his reason. He died in 1745 at the age of 78.
STEELE.
There is little room here to speak of Steele (b. 1671, d. 1729).
He was one of the famous essay- writers who joined with Addison in
writing for "The Spectator" and "The Guardian." He began life in
the army, but early gave up the sword for the pen. Towards the
end of Queen Anne's reign he entered Parliament, but was turned
DEFOE — POPE. 591
out of the House for writing what was declared to be treasonable
literature. Under George I., however, he was taken back into
favour. The names of Addison and Steele always go together as
those of writers of clear and beautiful English prose.
DEFOE.
Daniel Defoe (b. 1661, d. 1731) was a busy politician and an active
man during his lifetime, but it is not by his politics that he is re-
membered. It is as the writer of that wonderful story "Robinson
Crusoe," which every English boy and girl knows, or ought to know,
that Defoe will be remembered as long as the English language is
read. " Robinson Crusoe " in his coat of skins and carrying his
umbrella, " Man Friday," the Dog, the Goats, the Parrot, are friends
of whom we never grow tired, and who seem just as real to us as
any of the people who lived and died, and whose stories are told in
this book. Besides "Robinson Crusoe" Defoe wrote several other
stories, of which " The Life of Captain Singleton " and " The History
of Colonel Jacque" are the best known. His "History of the Plague
of London" is also a book of the greatest interest.
Pope— Early Newspapers
" Why did I write ? What 8i'n to me unknown
Dipp'd me in ink— my parents', or my own ?
As yet a child, nor yet a fool to fame,
I lisp'd in numbers, for the numbers came."
Pope (writing of himself in " Prologue to Satires
POPE.
Perhaps the greatest name among the writers of the later Stuarts
is that of Alexander Pope (b. in London 1688, d. 1744). He began
writing when he was quite a child, and throughout the whole of his
life was seldom idle. He wrote little that was not worthy of a
great writer. In 1715 he published the first part of his translations
of the " Iliad " and the " Odyssey " of Homer, the wonderful Greek
poems which describe the Siege of Troy, and the Ten Years' War
between Greeks and Trojans, and the wanderings of Ulysses. Here
are some lines taken from Pope's translation, which show the form
of his poetry.
592 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The lines describe how the great Trojan hero, " Hector," bids
farewell to his wife and child, before going to battle : —
"Thus having spoke, th' illustrious chief of Troy
Stretch'd his fond arms to clasp the lovely boy ;
The babe clung crying to his nurse's breast,
Scared at the dazzling helm and nodding crest.
With secret pleasure each fond parent smiled,
And Hector hastened to relieve his child :
The glittering terrors from his brow unbound,
And placed the gleaming helmet on the ground ;
Then kiss'd the child, and lifting high in air,
Thus to the gods preferr'd a father's prayer —
' O Thou ! whose glory fills th' ethereal throne,
And all ye deathless powers ! protect my son !
Grant him, like me, to purchase just renown,
To guard the Trojans, to defend the crown,
Against his country's foes the war to wage,
And rise the Hector of the future age ! ' " — Bk. VI.
It cannot be said that Pope's translation of this great poem is
the best and most correct that has ever been made, but the writing
is so fine and spirited that we can admire it for itself, even when
it does not give quite a true idea of the words and thoughts of the
writer of the " Iliad." The " Essay on Man " is a most wonderful piece
of writing. Every line of it seems to be fitted and polished with the
same marvellous care. There are very many that have not read
the " Essay on Man " who, nevertheless, are familiar with many of the
lines which it contains. There is hardly any poem in the English
language from which lines are more often quoted by writers, by
speakers, and in ordinary conversation. It is in the " Essay on Man "
that we find, among many other equally well-known passages, the lines
which describe the nature of man : —
"Know, then, thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise, and rudely great :
With too much knowledge for the sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the stoic's pride,
He hangs between ; in doubt to act, or rest ;
In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast ;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reasoning but to err ;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little or too much ;
POPE. 593
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused ;
Still by himself abused, or disabused ;
Created half to rise, and half to fall ;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all •;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled ;
The glory, jest, «nd riddle of the world ! "
Very familiar, too, are the following lines : —
" Hope humbly, then; with trembling pinions soar;'
Wait the great teacher Death ; and God adore.
What future bliss, He gives not thee to know,
But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast :
Man never is, but always to be blest."
The " Dunciad," a satire, and the " Rape of the Lock" are among
other well-known poems by Pope.
NEWSPAPERS.
We must not leave the subject of writers and literature without
mentioning the beginning of one great branch of writing which has
become very important in our own day. Before the Stuart time
small printed sheets giving news had from time to time been issued
on special occasions; but it was not till the days of Charles I. that
we find anything like a real newspaper such as we are acquainted with
at the present day.
It was during the Long Parliament that the practice began of
printing a regular account of what took place in the two Houses,
and this account was called " A Diurnal" — or, as we should say,
" Journal," or " daily." On the following page is a picture of a
page from one of these diurnals, greatly reduced in size. The date
on it is the isth of January, 1643. " The Diurnal " was soon followed
by many other newspapers, till in our day there is scarcely a town
in the kingdom that has not got its daily or weekly newspaper.
594 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
(lOl)
A Perfeft Diurnal!
OF SOME
PASSAGES
PARLIAMENT^
And from other parts of this Kingdom, from Munday the
H.of /4«<Mr;,iill Monday tht aa. of l**mrj. Amu 16+9.
Colle&ed for the fkisfcflicm of fuch B defire to be truly informed.
Printed for Frmr* Celfttnd Ltitrnci Blakfleck .- And art to be fold
•t their Shop* in the OM-B*<tj, and it Timplt.-Bm .
•lere win Conference of both Houfei this morning. Withi tro* •
upon occalion of a Letter from (he Loid Rcttm to edition oi t i
his Excellency the Earle of Efftx. for fome fuppliet E«»' .<a<x>
of money for the Army , which wa« left to the «•* *"*:,
confideratioo al the Common!. And they actor- ^,«« .nd
dingly taking the fame into conGderationa agreed SdTtt.far.
in an order for the fpeedy raiflrg of I ocoo pound, fa igunft 1/14
out of the profiw of the Exeife Office , or to be cnem)r "««
procured upon loans for the prefent fuppl, of the "'"f™^'
Army, until! fuch time at the faid fumme can be "^ %£
raifed out ot (he ExcifeOfficc. And they appointed i«oo of the
• Committee to (teat with the Cotnm'flioneri for Exeife thii aiternoone about enemies kiUtd'
the fame. and tal(cn Pri*
' There wa< alfo another Conference of the HouTei about the Baric of P'W, ^ ofl'ma
touching which the Loidi gave the Common* to ondcrftand, that they have been , 4 Cn|uu,,, y
often follicited by petition and otherwaiesi for tbereftorationof the faid Earleof Urr>a£es.and
HtHimJto his place in their Houfe againe; and more particularly, received a peti- <"h« "'h
tion oo the Saturday before by tht Noble Admirall theEarle of tr*r*ict<f in f"K'
hisbtK^lft; frith much fubmiflion icknowltdping fail errour fo; hii former de-
feting thi PulUncm , upon ihe ground* and r«afo/i foiihlully rekted, in hit
Cc «»•
A PAGE FROM AN EARLY NEWSPAPER.
CHAPTER LXIII.
SCIENCE, ART, AND DAILY LIFE UNDER THE STUARTS.
The Royal Society— Newton and Wren— Harvey.
"See worlds on worlds compose one universe,
Observe how system into system runs,
What other planets circle other suns."
Pope : " Essay on Man. "
WE have spoken of the band of famous writers who lived in the
Stuart period, and we have divided them into two sets — those who
lived and wrote in the earlier period, before the Revolution, and
THE ROYAL SOCIETY — NEWTON,
595
those who lived and wrote during the last years of the period, and
chiefly in the reign of Queen Anne. We have now to speak of two
great Englishmen, who were among the most famous of all the men
of their time, and whose work was done in the Stuart period— the one
a great mathematician, the other a great architect.
Sir Isaac Newton and Sir Christopher Wren can hardly be classed
with either the famous
men of the first part, or
of the last part, of the
Stuart period. They were
both born during the reign
of Charles I. — Wren in
1632, and Newton in 1642.
They both outlived Queen
Anne, Wren dying in 1723,
and Newton four years
later, in 1727. They thus
lived through both the
Rebellion and the Revo-
lution, and formed, as it
were, a bridge between
the early and the late
part of the period. Before
giving an account of Sir
Isaac Newton and Sir
Christopher Wren, we
must find room for a word
respecting the famous
Society to which they
belonged, and of which
they were the greatest
ornaments.
This was the Royal Society, \vhich was founded in the year 1645,
and which received its name, and the Royal Charter which gave
it its rights, from Charles II. in the year 1662. The Royal Society
was formed to encourage the study of the Sciences : Astronomy,
Anatomy, Mathematics, Medicine, and other subjects. At the present
day we often see the letters F.R.S. placed after the name of some
distinguished men. The letters mean " Fellow of the Royal Society,"
and serve to show us that this famous Society, founded two hundred
and fifty years ago, still lives and flourishes, and carries on the work
which it was founded to undertake.
SIR ISAAC NEWTON.
596 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
NEWTON.
By far the most distinguished member of the Royal Society in
its early years, and perhaps the most distinguished man that has
ever belonged to it, is Sir Isaac Newton. He was educated at Trinity
College, Cambridge, and showed early in his life wonderful powers
as a mathematician and a great thinker. It is, of course, quite im-
possible to explain here the great discoveries which Newton made,
and which are described in his famous book, the " Principia." His
greatest discovery was that of the laws of gravity. A story is told that
as he was lying under an apple-tree he saw an apple fall to the ground,
and that he asked himself why it was that the apple fell to the ground.
It seems to us a very simple thing that an apple should fall to the
ground. Everything in the world follows the same law as the apple,
and will fall to the ground unless it be supported.
But the very fact that the rule or law by which a body falls down to
the ground, instead of falling upwards, or remaining stationary, is
without an exception, makes it the more important that we should
know what this law and rule really is. It was this "force of gravity"
which tends to make everything fall towards the centre of the earth,
that Newton studied ; and he was the first person to make it clear that
the rule or law of gravity applied not only to things upon our own earth,
but to everything in the whole of the great universe of which we have
any knowledge. He showed that the same force which makes the
apple fall to the ground kept our earth in its proper place in its path-
way round the sun, and that all the planets, and even the most distant
stars, which we can scarcely see with the aid of a powerful telescope,
obey the same great law of gravity.
Not only did Newton show that the law applied to all substances
throughout the universe, but he explained how the force of gravity
makes itself felt, and laid down rules which enable us to calculate
what will be the effect of this force in any case, whether upon
the surface of the earth or on the great world of stars outside
our globe.
Since Newton's discovery, much has been learnt in addition to what
was written in the " Principia " ; but all that Newton discovered has
been proved to be true by those who came after him, and his name'
will always be remembered as that of one of the greatest discoverers
and thinkers the world has ever known.
Unlike some other great men, Newton was held in high honour in
his own day. He was made Master of the Mint, President of the
Royal Society, and received the honour of being made a member of
the famous " Academy of -Sciences." in Paris, where his work was as
WREN.
597
well known as it was in England. Newton died in 1727, and was
buried in Westminster Abbey.
WREN.
Sir Christopher Wren was a Westminster scholar, and went to
college at the University of Oxford. Like Sir Isaac Newton, he was
ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, DESIGNED BY SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN.
(Photo by Frith &> Co., Reigaie.')
famous and honoured in his own day, and, like Newton, he has left
behind him work which makes his name as well known in our own day
as it was in that of Queen Anne. It was the Fire of London which
gave Wren his great opportunity of showing his skill as an architect.
We have read how in that terrible fire no less than eighty-nine of the
churches of London were burnt to the ground. Wren was intrusted
with the task of planning a number of the new churches, which were to
be built to take the places of those that had been destroyed.
Of these new churches the most famous is the stately cathedral
of St. Paul, which still raises its lofty and well-shaped dome far above
598 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the busy streets of the city of London. Inside the cathedral may be
seen, over one of the doors, a Latin inscription. In the inscription we
are told how Sir Christopher Wren built the great cathedral, and how
he lies buried within its walls, and at the end of it are the Latin words,
" Si monumentum requiris, circumspice." This is what the words mean;
" If you ask where is his monument, look around you." And, indeed, no
nobler monument could have been placed over the grave of the great
architect than the noble church which he himself had built.
Among the other famous buildings which were planned by Wren,
and which are still to be seen, are The Custom House (in London), The
Monument, and Greenwich and Chelsea Hospitals. Wren died in 1723,
in the reign of George I.
WILLIAM HARVEY.
One other name must be mentioned before we leave the world of
science, and that is the name of William Harvey (b. 1578, d. 1657).
Harvey, a physician, educated at the University of Cambridge, has
earned fame by a discovery which, like Newton's discovery of the law
of gravity, has become the foundation of a vast amount of knowledge
which has grown out of it.
If we lay our finger upon our wrist we shall feel the quick, steady
beat of the blood in the pulse as it passes from the heart, down the
'arteries of the arm, to the very ends of the fingers, to return thence by
way of the network of veins, which bring it back again at last to the
heart. It was Harvey who first discovered and explained to the world
the way in which the blood circulates in the human body. It was he
who showed how it passed out of the heart with each beat, flows
through the arteries, and returns again through the veins, is refreshed
and purified before it starts again upon its journey, and how this
movement or circulation goes on without ceasing as long as life remains
in the human body. Few discoveries have made a greater difference
to the arts of medicine and surgery than Harvey's great discovery of the
circulation of the blood.
599
Population— Prices— Wages— Art.
" How small of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure."
Johnson : Lines added to Goldsmith's " Traveller."
So much space has been given up to an account of the political
events which took place during the Stuart Period, and to the history of
the long struggle between king and Parliament, that ' little room
has been left to tell of the life of the country outside Parliament
and far from political strife and turmoil. It must not be forgotten,
however, that the daily life of the people, their happiness or distress,
their progress and their prosperity, are really the most important
things to be noted in a nation's history, and no one ought to think
that he has anything like full knowledge of any part of history unless
he has made a study of these things.
It must not be supposed for a moment that even during the height
of the Civil War the whole thoughts of the people were given up
to politics and fighting. On the contrary, there were tens of thousands
of people who were only anxious to be let alone and to go about
their business quietly and in their own way. Throughout the whole
Stuart Period, the country, despite bad government and despite per-
petual war, was growing richer and more prosperous. The population
of England was nothing to what it now is, the total being not much
more than five millions, or about equal to the population of London
at the present day.
London was then, as now, by far the largest city. Then came
Norwich and Bristol. The great cities of Manchester, Liverpool, and
Leeds were still comparatively small places. Trade, however, was
rapidly increasing, especially as English merchants and sailors began
to compete with the Dutch and Spaniards for the trade of the East
and West Indies. Roads were bad, but attempts were made to
improve them, and the use of coaches became much more general
than it had hitherto been. In towns the sedan chair, carried by two
men, was generally used for such purposes as a cab or carriage now
performs for us.
Then, as now, while many grew rich many remained poor, and
the number of paupers was increased by the unwise laws which
6oo HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
prevented a pauper from leaving his own parish, though by doing so
he might have gone to a place where he might have obtained work.
The price of wheat was as high as 705. a quarter. It is now sometimes
as low as 205. a quarter, and in the days of the Stuarts a shilling
was worth more than it is now, so that 705. then was even a higher
price than 705. would be at the present day. Wages were low, being
generally about 6d. a day for those who worked in the country,
but skilled artisans, such as carpenters and bricklayers, could earn
as much as 2S. 6d. a day.
At the present day wages are of course higher in all trades.
There is, however, one exception which is worth while noting, and
which is rather a strange one. The private soldiers who served
under William III. received one shilling a day, which is exactly the
sum a private soldier is supposed to receive every day in the time
of King Edward VII.
The period of the Stuarts was, as a whole, favourable to Art.
Both Charles I. and Charles II. did much to encourage painting.
Sir Peter Lely and Sir Godfrey Kneller were both of them foreigners
who found a welcome for themselves and their art in England, and the
great Flemish painter, Van Dyck, painted many of his most famous
pictures in England. Charles I. himself made a very fine collection
of paintings, but unfortunately the collection was broken up and
partly destroyed by the Puritans during the Commonwealth.
6oi
PAUT SIX.
FROM THE ACCESSION OF THE HOUSE OF
HANOVER TO THE PRESENT TIME.
1714-1901.
NOTE.
The sixth and last part of the present work continues the
story of English history from the date of the death
of Queen Anne and the accession of the House of
Hanover, down to the present day. The difficulty of
condensation, which has already made itself apparent
in earlier portions of the book, is even more seriously felt
hi dealing with the full records and crowded events of
modern times.
To give the main facts, to explain the great changes, and to
indicate the characteristic tendencies of the time is all
that can be attempted. The building up of the Empire
in war and peace, the winning of India and of America,
the loss of the United States, the fidelity of Canada,
the great struggle between Britain and France, the
long peace after Waterloj, and the political contests of
the last sixty years — tliese are the great events which
have to be recorded.
The political and social changes which mark the present
century, " Steps on the Path of Freedom" claim and
receive mention. The full tables of facts, events, and
dates supply to some extent the large but necessary
omissions in the text.
CHAPTER LXIV.
GEORGE I.
1714-1727.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF GEORGE I.
George I., King of Great Britain and Ireland,
Elector of Hanover, son of Ernest
Augustus, Elector of Hanover, and
Sophia, granddaughter of James I.,
b. 1660, became king 1714, d. 1727.
Sophia Dorothea (of Zell), wife and cousin
of George I., m. 1682, divorced 1^94,
d. 1726.
George, son of George I. and Sophia, b.
1683, afterwards king.
Sophia Dorothea, daughter of George I.
and Sophia, afterwards wife of Fred-
erick William of Prussia, b. 1687.
James Edward Stuart, the "Old Pre-
tender," son of James II. and Mary
of Modena.
602
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Charles Edward Stuart, tl.e " Young Pre-
tender," son of James Edward, b.
1720.
LOUiS XIV., King of France, d. 1715.
LOUiS XV., King of France.
Charles VI., Emperor.
Frederick William I., King of Prussia.
PWlip V., King of Spain.
Peter the Great, Czar of Russia, d. 1725.
Catherine I., Empress of Russia.
Charles XII., King of Sweden, d. 1718.
John Churchill, Duke of Marltoorough,
d. 1722.
Principal Ministers of George I. :—
Sir Robert Walpole.
James, Earl of Stanhope, d. 1721.
Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax,
d. 1715.
Charles Spencer, Earl of Sunder -
land. d. 1722.
Viscount Charles Townshend.
Thomas Pelham, Duke of Newcastle.
John Carteret, Earl of Granville.
Great Writers :—
Daniel Defoe, b. 1661.
Matthew Prior, b. 1664, d. 1721.
Jonathan Swift, b. 1667.
William Congreve, b. 1670.
Richard Steele, b. 1671.
Joseph Addison, b. 1672, d. 1719.
Henry St. John, Lord Bolingbroke,
b. 1678.
Alexander Pope, b. 1688.
Bishop Burnet, b. 1643, d- ^s*
Sir Christopher Wren, bT 1632, d. 1723.
Sir Isaac Newton, b. 1642, d. 1727.
Great Painters :—
Sir Godfrey Kneller (German), d. 1723.
William Hogarth (English), b. 1697.
Great Musicians:—
J. Sebastian Bach (German).
George Handel (German).
1714.
1715.
1716.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS
George I. becomes king.
DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE I.
Riot Act passed, and Habeas Corpus
.Act suspended.
Battle of Sheriffmuir.
The Pretender lands at Peterhead.
near Aberdeen.
The Septennial Act passed.
1718. Sir George Byng defeats the Spaniards
at Passaro.
1720. The South Sea Company Act passed.
The "South Sea Bubble" bursts.
1722. Death of the Duke of Marlborough.
1727. Gibraltar besieged by Spaniards.
Death of George I.
The German King-.
When George in pudding-time came o'er,
And moderate men look'd big, sir,
My principles I changed once more,
And so became a Whig, sir;
And thus preferment I procur'd
From our new faith's-defender,
And almost every day abjur'd
The Pope and the Pretender."— (" The Vicar of Bray.")
AT the end of Chapter LIX. we read how Queen Anne, the last of the
Stuart sovereigns of England, died in her palace at Kensington in the
year 1714. The strife between the two great parties in the country
was fought out round her death-bed. The Whig Ministers, knowing
the danger which they ran if a Roman Catholic king were placed upon
the throne, had prevailed upon Anne in her last moments to dismiss
her Tory Ministers, and to declare George, (95) Protestant Elector of
Hanover, her successor.
THE GERMAN KING. 603
Messages were sent to the new king bidding him come and take
possession of his kingdom, and every preparation was made to secure
his safe arrival by men who knew that their own power, and possibly
their own property and lives, depended upon the event.
It will be well to recall here one or two facts which we have already
learnt about the new king, and about his claim to the throne. Here
is a table which shows who the Elector George of Hanover was, and how
he came to be the successor to the throne of England : —
JAMES I. = Anne of Denmark.
Henry, d. 1612. CHARLES I. --= Henrietta Maria. Elizabeth = Frederick V.,
| Elector Palatine.
CHARLES II. Anne Hyde = JAMES II. = Mary of Mary Sophia = Ernest Augustus,
Mary
Mo
odena.
Hanover.
James Edward (The Old Pretender).
Charles Edward (The Young Pretender.)
GEORGE I.
Elector of
MARY = WILLIAM III. ANNE = George of Denmark.
From the table it will easily be seen that, according to the law and
custom of England, by which the eldest son and all the descendants of
the eldest son of the sovereign are entitled to succeed to the throne
before the daughter of the sovereign or any of the daughter's de-
scendants, George was not the true heir to the Crown. He was descended,
it is true, from Elizabeth, (81) daughter of James I. ; but James I. had, as
we know, two sons as well as a daughter. One of these sons was
Charles I., and a descendant of Charles I. was still alive — namely, his
grandson, James Francis Edward Stuart, m) son of James II.
Undoubtedly, if the old law and custom of England had been left
unchanged, James Stuart, and not the Elector George, would have
become king on the death of Queen Anne. But, as a matter of fact,
a great change had been made in the law of England ; for by the
Act of Succession, passed in the year 1701, it had been declared and
enacted as part of the law of the land that the succession to the crown
should not pass to the Stuarts, but should go to the Protestant family
of the Princess Sophia, (89> Electress Dowager of Hanover, and her heirs,
being Protestants.1
The Elector George was the heir of the Princess Sophia, who died
in 1714; and, therefore, by the Act of Parliament, George, and not
James, became king.
1 For the clause in the Act of Settlement, 5 Anne cap. 8, Article 2, see p. 556.
604 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
There were, however, many people in the country who believed
that Parliament had no right to alter the order of succession to the
crown, and who, therefore, supported the claim of James ; and there
was a large party still remaining, known as "Jacobites," who wished to
see the Stuarts put back on the throne. And thus it came about that
the new king found himself beset at the very beginning of his reign
by serious dangers.
Why King* George Found a Welcome.
"And the frogs agreed that after all it were better to be ruled over
by King Log than King Stork. " — yEso/'s Fables.
At first it seemed almost impossible that George should be able to
hold his own, for the forces against him were very powerful, and it
seemed as if he were likely to get but small support among his new
subjects. It was some time before the king could be persuaded to
leave Hanover. At last he began his journey. A fleet was sent to
protect his passage across the sea, and he arrived safely in England.
By the Whig Ministers, who had secured the crown for him, he was
welcomed ; but there was little enthusiasm for the new king among
the people generally. This was not strange. George was an elderly
man, plain to ugliness, slow and unattractive in manner, and quite
unacquainted with England or with English manners. He spoke
German and not a word of English ; and the strange scene was
witnessed of a royal speech being read in the House of Lords by
the Lord Chancellor because the King of England could not speak
a single word which his subjects could understand.
When we remember that the powerful Tory Party was still smarting
from its defeat, and angry at being turned out of office; when we
remember that many of its members were open or secret friends of the
Stuarts, and that James Stuart was reported to be young, handsome,
and energetic, and in all ways a contrast to the new German king — it
is not wonderful that the friends of the " Protestant Succession " were
greatly alarmed for the safety of their cause.
Happily, however, for England, there were forces equally strong on
the other side which enabled the friends of the " Protestant Succes-
sion " to hold their own, to triumph over their enemies, and at last
to win to their side men of -all parties, creeds, and opinions in the
United Kingdom. It was true that the new king was neither attractive
WHY KING GEORGE FOUND A WELCOME.
605
nor popular; but if the people of England liked a Hanoverian king
little, they liked a Stuart king still less. The memory of the reigns
of Charles II. and James II. was too fresh to have passed from men's
minds. Moreover, England was by this time almost wholly a Pro-
testant country, and the Protestant cause had little to hope from a
king whose best friends were to be found in the ranks of the Roman
Catholics, and who
always sought to
bring England to
his own way of
thinking by the
arms of foreign
soldiers in the
service of the great
Roman Catholic
monarch of
France.
Neither must it
be forgotten that
during the reign
of Queen Anne
trade had been
prospering, wealth
had been growing,
and the business
of the country had
largely increased.
All those who
have to carry on
business know that
the best chance
of success is when
the country is
peaceable and undisturbed ; and it is when men are confident that
the Government will continue, and the laws be fairly and regularly
carried out, that they are ready to risk large sums of money in
commerce or manufactures. There was not a single business man in
England in 1715 who did not in his heart believe that the return
of the Stuarts would mean disaster to his trade ; and this fear, more
perhaps than any other reason, led large numbers of well-to-do
people to support the German king and his Whig Ministers, rather
than the Stuart Pretender with his French and Scottish supporters.
GEORGE I.
606 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The Beginning- of Troubles.
"Where Law ends, Tyranny begins."
— William Pitt (Lord Chatham).
It was the Whigs who had brought King George over, and the
Whigs now took good care that the king should reward them for
their services. Townshend, Lord Halifax, General Stanhope, Lord Cowper,
Sir Robert Walpole, and others— all of them Whigs — were appointed
to the great offices of State. The Duke of Marlborough hurried back to
England, hoping that he, too, would receive the honour to which
he thought himself entitled. But a man who had betrayed so many
masters was not one to be trusted, and the victor of Blenheim and of
Ramillies found himself without power, and no longer either feared
or respected.
For a short time there was peace at home and abroad. It seemed
as if the enemies of the Government had been taken by surprise, and
could offer no real resistance to the new king or to his Ministers.
There were soon signs, however, that the peace was not to last long.
Riots broke out in many parts of England, which grew more violent
when the Government decided to impeach the members of the old
Tory Ministry. So serious did the disturbances become that it was
thought necessary to pass a special Act of Parliament for the purpose
of putting them down. This Act, which is still part of the law of the
land, is known as the "Riot Act" (1715).
The Riot Act declares that if " twelve or more persons are un-
lawfully assembled to the disturbance of the peace, and any Justice of
the Peace or Sheriff shall think proper to command them by proclama-
tion to disperse, if they contemn his orders, and continue together for
one hour afterwards, such contempt shall be felony.1" This means that
a magistrate may order a riotous crowd to disperse ; and that if, after
he has read the proclamation contained in the Act of Parliament, the
persons who form the crowd remain assembled for an hour after the
reading of the proclamation, they are all and each of them liable to be
punished for doing so. It is often supposed that persons who take
part in a riot cannot be punished until an hour has passed after the
reading of the Riot Act ; but this is quite a mistake. Any man who
acts unlawfully is liable to be punished for doing so, whether the Riot
Act has been read or not. What the Act says is, that if people have
THE BEGINNISC, OF TROUBLES.
607
received proper notice to disperse, and refuse to obey the law for the
space of an hour, their remaining together assembled after that time is
in itself an illegal act, for which they can be punished.
It has sometimes happened that people who have joined the crowd,
but who are not rioters, have been shot or injured by the officers of
the law who have been ordered to disperse the rioters. Such people
have no right to com-
plain ; for if out of
curiosity or any other
reason they choose to
remain, when they
have had full notice
that it is illegal to
do so, they have no
one but themselves
to thank.
The impeachment
of the Tory Ministers
was begun in the year
1715. The charge
against them was that
they had committed
High Treason by
making terms too
easily with France
during the last reign,
and by giving away
the advantages which
England had justly
won by her great
victories. The im-
peachment, however,
came to little, and
most of the persons
against whom the charges were brought were in the end allowed
to go unpunished. But two of the most active of the Tory leaders,
who doubtless feared that in their cases at least the charges of High
Treason might be proved true, fled to the Continent, and openly joined
the cause of James Stuart, or, as he was usually called in England, "The
Pretender." The two men who thus fled were Bolingbroke and the Duke
of Onnond, and both showed great activity in plotting against the Whig
Government and in stirring up foreign Powers to help the Pretender,
LOUIS XIV. OF FRANCE.
608 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
It is possible that their efforts might have been successful, had it
not been for an important event which took place at this time. This
was the death of the old French king, Louis XIV., the life-long enemy
of England. He died in 1715, in the seventy-seventh year of his age
and the seventy-third year of his reign ; and although he had been for
many years feeble in mind and body, he was to the very last a
dangerous enemy of our country.
The friends of the Pretender had always looked to the King of
France as their chief and most certain support, but Louis XV., or rather
his uncle, Philip, Duke of Orleans, who had now been appointed Regent
to the young king,1 was by no means so bitter an enemy of England as
his predecessor had been, and the Ministers of the new king went so
far as to believe that the advantage of France might actually be found
in an alliance with Britain and its Whig Government.
"The 'Fifteen "—Success.
"God bless the King— I mean the Faith's defender!
God bless (no harm in blessing!) the Pretender!
But who pretender is, or who is king —
God bless us all! that's quite another thing." — John Byrom.
Thus it came about, that when at last the Pretender and his friends
made up their minds to risk an invasion of the United Kingdom, in the
hope of uniting their friends and recovering the crown of England for
the Stuarts, they found but scanty support from the French Court.
At last, despairing of any effective aid from the Regent, James set sail,
and, having by a lucky chance escaped the English vessels, succeeded
in reaching Scotland with a single ship.
It was to Scotland that James naturally looked for most active
support. The very name he bore was one which was sure to earn for
him the friendship of the Highlanders, who remembered that the
Stuart Kings of England were also the chiefs of the famous family of the
Stuarts. Moreover, the rivalry and hatred which always existed
between the various Highland clans had already enlisted a large body
of the Highlanders among the enemies of the Whig Government. The
most powerful of the Scottish Whigs was the Duke of Argyle, the head
of the great clan Campbell.
1 Louis XV. was only five years old when he became king.
" THE * FIFTEEN" — SUCCESS.
609
The most powerful of all the clans, the Clan Campbell was hated
•as well as feared by those who had suffered at its hands, or who were
jealous of its success — in other words, by the greater number of the
-clans of the North. That the Duke of Argyie, "The McCalhim More," as
!he was called, had taken sides with the Hanoverian king was in
Itself almost enough to range the Highlanders on the other side ; and
\when to this induce-
ment was added the
chance of following
a Stuart into Eng-
land, there was
scarcely a Scots-
man north of the
Tay who could not
be reckoned upon
as a friend of the
cause.
In August, 1715,
the standard of the
Pretender was
raised at Braemar,
in Aberdeenshire ;
it was soon joined
by many of the
Highland chiefs and
gentlemen, and in
September a small
army under the Earl
of Mar began its
march southward.
Difficulties, how-
ever, soon began to
appear. The High-
landers were brave and hardy, but were too much divided! iiito>
different clans to allow of their forming a really united army, nor
were they accustomed to make war in a regular fashion. Alike
after victory or defeat, they preferred to hasten off to their own
homes, in the one case to secure and enjoy their plunder, in the
other to protect their homesteads from the enemy. Provisions and;
ammunition were also wanting; and what was still more important,
it soon became evident that James Stuart, so far from being the brilliant
and active prince of whom his friends had drawn so favourable a picture,
u
JAMES EDWARD STUART, THE "OLD PRETENDER."
6 io HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
was a man of little judgment, of no skill in war, unable to add to
the number of his friends, and scarcely able to retain the friendship
of those who were already devoted to his cause.
For a few days it seemed as if the Highlanders might win some
success. They passed Edinburgh and reached the Border at Jedburgh.
It was determined to push on into England, in the hope that the
Jacobites in the northern counties would rise on behalf of the
Pretender. But a double disappointment here met the invaders.
Many of the Highlanders refused to cross the Border into England,
and, leaving the army, returned to their homes. The remainder, with
some troops under the command of Lord Kenmure, of Mackintosh,
and of Mr. Forster, a Northumbrian gentleman, marched south. The
leaders soon found that their little army of 2,000 men was all that they
could rely upon for the invasion of England and the overthrow of the
House of Hanover.
The English Jacobites, with a very few exceptions, held back,
fearing to join an enterprise which seemed ill-managed and badly led.
" The 'Fifteen "—Failure.
"I am at this moment come from the conclusion of the greatest and
most melancholy scene I ever yet saw ! You will easily guess it was the
trial of the rebel lords. " — From Horace Walpole's description of the trial of Lords
Kilmarnock, Cromarty, and Balmerino before the House of Lords, after "The
'Fifteen.''
Meanwhile in the month of August, 1715, the Highland army entered
Lancashire. On the London and North Western Railway, between
Crewe and Lancaster, lies the large manufacturing town of Preston.
On the south side of the town the ground slopes rapidly down the
banks of the river Kibble, and a public garden and park now make the
approach by the railway an exceedingly pretty one. Into the town of
Preston the Highlanders marched, but this was the furthest point they
were destined to reach. General Carpenter and General Wills at
last came up with the rebels, and attacked the town with great vigour.
The action was short, but decisive. The rebels were defeated and
compelled to surrender.
As far as England was concerned, the danger was over, but in
Scotland the struggle between the Duke of Argyle on the one side and
the Earl of Mar on the other continued for a time. A battle was fought
ojji the i^th. of November at gfceriffinuir, in Perthshire. No decisive
' ' THE ' FIFTEEN "— FA IL URE. 6 1 r
advantage remained with either party. One wing of the royal army
defeated the troops opposed to it, while the other wing was driven
back at the same time. Both sides claimed a victory which neither
side had really won. An old rhyme recalls the history of this fight :
"Some say that we wan, and some say that they wan,
And some say that nane wan at a', man ;
But ae thing I'm sure,
That at Sheriffmuir
A battle there was which I saw, man."
It was at this point of the campaign, when one party of his
supporters had been defeated and destroyed in England and another
party had failed to obtain any real power in Scotland, that The
Pretender himself arrived in Scotland to champion his own cause. He
landed at Peterhead on the 6th of January, 1716, and at once issued
proclamations in his own name as King James VIII. But Fortune
had already declared against him, and he was not the man to win back
her favours. His little force melted away ; the Highlanders, pursued
by Argyle, retreated to the North. At last, on the 5th of February,
scarcely a month after his landing, James took ship again and sought
refuge in France.
He escaped with his life ; his followers were not so fortunate.
The principal leaders, both in England and Scotland, were taken
prisoners. Lords Derwentwater and Kenmure were executed, but the
Government wisely did not act with great severity, for it was plain
that the country was not anxious for the restoration of the Stuarts, and
nothing was to be gained by making unnecessary enemies.
Thus ended the rebellion known in our history as "The 'Fifteen."
For a time it became really dangerous in Scotland, but in England the
sight of the half-savage Highlanders did more to strengthen the royal
cause than even the success of the royal troops. The English were
half-angry and half-afraid when they saw these strange clansmen
brought into the heart of their country, and they readily gave their
support to a Government which was ready and able to protect them
from such a danger. The time had not yet come when the " bonnets "
and " tartans" of the Highland soldiers were to be welcome in every
town and village in England, and when the valour of the clansmen was
to be shown in many a hard-fought field among the bravest defenders
of that United Kingdom which in 1715 they were doing their best
to break up. In 1-715 the claymore and tartan went down at the rout
of Preston. In 1815, only a hundred years later, the claymore and
tartan held their own during all the long day, in the thick of the
battle, on the victorious field of Waterloo.
612 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
But the " The 'Fifteen " had important consequences in England.
As the Riot Act was due to the special disturbances which took
place at this time, so was another great Act of Parliament in like
manner the outcome of the difficulties in which the Whig Parliament
of George I. found itself. In an earlier chapter we read how in
the reign of William III. an Act of Parliament called the "Triennial
Act " was passed, by which it was enacted that Parliament should not
last more, than three years.
The time had come when, under this Act, the Whig Parliament,
which had done so much to secure the position of the king, would
naturally have come to an end and been dissolved, but the Govern-
ment, and many persons who were not members of the Government,
were alarmed at the idea of a new Parliament being called together at
this time. The country was scarcely yet free from civil war. Plots
and intrigues were known to exist on every side, and though the
Pretender's expedition had failed, chiefly owing to the want of support
from France, there was no knowing how soon a second and much
stronger expedition might not set sail with French or Spanish aid.
It seemed necessary that, at any cost, Parliament should remain
unaltered for the time.
A Bill was, therefore, brought in and passed into law, by which it
was enacted that the length of a Parliament should cease to be three
years, and, unless it were earlier dissolved, should be extended to
seven years. This Act, known as the Septennial Act (1716), has lasted
down to our own time, and is still the law of the land. It was said by
many at the time that Parliament had no right and no power to pass
such an Act, or, at any rate, to make such an Act apply to itself.
It was pointed out with great truth that if Parliament could prolong
its own life to seven years, there was no reason why it should not
prolong it to seventy; But in times of difficulty it is sometimes
necessary to do things which would not be done, and ought not to be
done, in times of quiet. The great majority of the people of England
no doubt thought that Parliament had a real reason for passing the
Septennial Act, for they believed that it was necessary for the safety
of the country.
It has sometimes been suggested that it would be wise to repeal the
Act and go back to triennial Parliaments, or even to have a Parliament
every year. There will always be a difference of opinion as to
whether such changes would be advantageous, 'but there can be
little doubt that it would be very inconvenient to have a General
Election, and perhaps a change in the Government of the country,
every twelve months.
6i3
England and the Quarrels of Europe.
" War's a game which, were their subjects wise,
Kings would not play at."
' " Coivper : " The Task."
From the year 1716, in which the first Stuart rebellion, under the
Pretender James, was put down, to the end of King George's reign,
in 1727, was a period of eleven years; and during the whole of those
eleven years England was either engaged in war or was taking part
in some dispute between the different Powers of Europe which might
at any time lead to war.
There is not space to tell the whole story of the intrigues and
alliances, of the failures and successes, the account of which rightly
occupies many pages of a full and complete history of this time. But
there are some points with regard to the foreign policy of England
which must be mentioned, because they have a great deal to do with
the condition of the British Empire at the present day. It must not
be forgotten that though George I. was King of Great Britain and Ireland,
he was also Elector, or Prince, of Hanover, a German State which
bordered on the kingdom of Prussia, and which was deeply interested
in all the quarrels between the various German States.
At that time Germany was broken up into scores of States, large
and small — from the great State of Austria, the powerful Electorate
of Bavaria, and Prussia, now becoming a strong Power, down to little
Principalities and even small independent towns with only a few
thousand inhabitants. At the present time, as we know, the German-
f peaking people of Central Europe are divided into two unequal parts,
the smaller number being subjects of the Emperor of Austria, and by far
the larger number belonging to the urited German Empire, which was
first established in 1871, after the great war between Germany and
France.
But at the time of which we are speaking — namely, the beginning
of the eighteenth century — there was no union among the German
States, and, in consequence, there were endless rivalries between them,
each State striving to get the better of its neighbour and ready to
accept any help which was available, often without much thought of
the consequences. But while Germany was thus divided there lay to
the westward, across the Rhine, the powerful and united kingdom of
614 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
France ; while in the south-west corner of Europe was the Spanish
monarchy, weaker far than it had been in the days of the Armada, but
still a grepi Power which had to be reckoned with.
Among all these Powers, great and small, there were endless
opportunities for alliances and counter-alliances ; and for many years
the foreign history of our country is concerned with the story of such
alliances,tin which the parties shift and change from 'one side to the
other like the fragments of glass in a kaleidoscope.
One year England and France are allies ; another year England has
taken sides with one of the German Powers, and France has become an
enemy. In 1717 we find England, France, and Holland united together
to form a. " Triple. Alliance " against the rest of Europe. A year later
(August, 1718) the "Triple Alliance" has been changed into the
" Quadruple Alliance," or the alliance of four Powers— England, France,
Holland, and Austria — against Spain, an alliance marked by the naval
victory of Admiral Sir George Byng1 over the Spanish fleet off Cape
Passaro, in Sicily.
From time to time every single Power in Europe, including Denmark,
Sweden, Norway, and Holland, was drawn into the conflict. As we have
already seen, England was never able — or, at any rate, never willing —
to stand outside for long. There were three reasons which compelled
British Ministers to take part in European disputes. In the first
place, George I. was a German sovereign, and never forgot, and
never allowed his Ministers to forget, that the interests of Hanover
occupied a greater place in his mind than those of Great
Britain.
In the second place, the Stuart claimants to the crown of England
still looked for their principal support to the two great Roman Catholic
Powers of Europe, namely, France and Spain, and especially to the
former. It is probable that after the death of Louis XIV. neither the
French king nor the French people took much interest in the Stuart
cause, but it was always useful to the Government of France to have
some threat which it could hold out against England, and the friends
of the Stuarts lost no opportunity of making difficulties between France
and the Whig Government of England they so greatly detested.
And, lastly, there was one cause which, more than either of the
others we have mentioned, tended to bring England more and more
into the quarrels of European countries. Ever since the accession of
the new king, wealth had been growing rapidly in England, and with
wealth had come the growth of enterprise and the starting of many
new commercial ventures. Year by year, as the century passed,
1 Afterwards Viscount Torrington.
ENGLAND AND THE QUARRELS OF EUROPE. 615
English ships had been going further and further afield in search of
trade; and as the power of Spain and Holland diminished, the position
of England as a great trading and shipping country grew stronger.
*But the further our ships went, the more certain were they to
come in conflict with other European Powers which already claimed
possession, or sought to take possession, of the unoccupied countries
of the world.
Spain still claimed enormous territories both in South and North
America ; in the West Indies, where Havannah, " The Pearl of the
Antilles" gave her the command of the Gulf of Mexico ; and in the
East Indies, where the trade of the Philippines was forbidden to any
but Spanish ships. In India, France was still a greater Power than
Britain, while in extent of territory at least the same might be said of
France in the great continent of North America. Portugal and Holland
both had great colonial possessions, and the Cape of Good Hope, perhaps
the most important position in the whole world, was in the hands
of the Dutch.
There was not one of the great Powers of Europe which was not
ready to fight in order to keep its colonial possessions ; but to none of
them, save to England, was the possession of new colonies and new
outlets of commerce the most important thing to be gained by war.
The Continental Powers were always concerned first of all to strengthen
or enlarge their own borders on the continent of Europe.
Prussia and Austria, France and Spain, Sweden and Russia, were
perpetually struggling to deprive each other of territory. It was the
good fortune of Britain that she could make no claim to an extension
of her boundaries at home. The frontier of the United Kingdom was
clearly marked by the waters of the ocean ; and thus it came about
that during the many conflicts which disturbed Europe the European
Powers were nearly always ready to give up to England some distant
colony or territory in exchange for the right to keep or to take some
part of the soil of Europe. And when at last the long struggle was
over, it was seen that while the boundaries of European States had
been changed, and while some European Powers had grown strong at
the expense of others who had grown weak, it was Britain that had
really added to her territory, and had acquired an empire outside
Europe, an empire to which we are now the heirs, and which it is
our duty to keep with the same courage and energy as were shown by
those who won it.
616 HISTORY OF ENGLAND
About the Country's Debts*
"English Funds, Consols 2% per cents., 773. '^
Even in a short account of the reign of George I. such as that to be
found in this book, it would not be right to leave out all mention of
what is known as the story of the " South Sea Bubble," for nothing,
perhaps, which occurred during the whole reign excited more interest
or concerned a greater number of people. Two things must be
remembered before we can properly understand the history of tha
"South Sea Bubble."
To begin with, England for the first time had got heavily into debt.
In old times it had often been the practice of the kings of England to
borrow money from their subjects or from foreigners for the purpose
of carrying on wars or for helping allies. But the money so borrowed
was the king's debt, and was repaid or not, according to the temper or
power of the king. It was only since the reign of William III. that
the practice, which has since become so common, of borrowing large
sums by authority of Parliament in the name of the nation had been
largely 'resorted to.
When a country like England wishes to borrow money, what is
done is to give power to the Government by an Act of Parliament to
borrow the sum required from anyone who will lend it, and to promise
the lenders a fixed rate of interest to be paid every year in return
for the use of the money. There are many ways in which the money
may be borrowed, and the interest for the use of it paid. In some
cases the Government asks that the money shall be lent, but does not
promise to pay it back at any particular time. It promises, however,
to continue to pay a fixed rate of interest until the amount lent has
been repaid. The greater part of the debt of the country, which is
sometimes spoken of as the " Consolidated Debt" is of this kind. Every-
one who has lent money to the Government under this arrangement is
said to hold a share of the " Consolidated Debt," or, as it is usually
called, to be a holder of " Consols." For every hundred pounds which
has been lent to the country the Government undertakes to pay a
fixed rate of interest as long as the debt is unpaid. The rate of
1 Extract from the City news of a daily newspaper, 1897. — The meaning is that on the day
in question purchasers were willing to give ^113 in exchange for the promise of the British
(iovernment to pay them £2 155. a year.
ABOUT THE COUNTRY'S DEBTS. 617
interest at present paid on Consols is £2 15s. for every hundred pounds,
or in some cases only £2 10s.
Sometimes the Government only wants the money for a short time,
and in such case an undertaking is given to pay back the money at
a very early date. There is also another way, which was used much
more frequently in the last century and at the beginning of this than it
is at the present time ; this is the plan of borrowing on life annuities.
According to this plan, the Government says to those who are
willing to lend money, " If you will lend us so much, we will give you
in return a promise to pay you a fixed sum every year for the use of it.
We will pay you regularly as long as you live, but when you die there
will be an end of the matter ; you will have had payment during your
lifetime. If you live long, you will have made a good bargain ; if you
die soon, you will have made a bad bargain."
When the Government borrowed by way of Life Annuity it always
had to pay a higher rate of interest than when it borrowed in the
ordinary way, when it was bound to go on paying interest to a
lender while he lived and to his representatives after he was dead.
No man knows how long he may live, and, therefore, no one would
take the risk of lending on such uncertain terms unless he were sure
of being well paid for doing so. On the other hand, there are always
plenty of people ready to take a chance if they are well paid for it.
The interest paid on the life annuities was high, and if a man were
fortunat*e enough to have a long life, he got the benefit of the high
interest for many years. If, on the contrary, he died soon after buying
his annuity, the Government got the profit, for it no longer had to
pay any interest.
At a time when it was not very easy to save money safely, when
there were few banks, and when business was not carried on upon the
great scale with which we are familiar nowadays, the plan of investing
in annuities became very popular; for it always gave to the purchaser
of the annuity the certainty of a livelihood in a time when there was
great uncertainty in respect of almost every other way of putting by
money. It thus came about that in the reign of George I. a large
number of people were the owners of Government annuities. The
Government had been compelled to borrow large sums of money for
the purpose of carrying on war abroad and at home, and much of the
money so borrowed was borrowed upon annuities of the kind that have
been described.
6i8 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The South Sea Bubble.
"Ye wise philosophers, explain
What magic makes our money rise
When dropt into the Southern main;
Or do these jugglers cheat our eyes ? " — Swift.
The Debt of England at this time was large, though not nearly so large
as it became in later years ; but it was so great that many people were
seriously alarmed, and thought that if the borrowing went on much
further the country would be unable to pay its debts at all, and would
become bankrupt. Among those who were most anxious to pay off
and get rid of part of the debt was Robert Walpole, who had now (1717)
become a member of the Ministry, and of whom we shall hear a great
deal more as we read on.
Walpole soon found out what he was in search of. A company
called " The Company of Merchants of Great Britain trading to the South
Seas," or, more shortly, "The South Sea Company," had lately been
formed. The object of the company, as its name tells us, was to
carry on trade with the various countries lying in the southern seas on
the continent of South America, and among the islands of the Atlantic.
Walpole made a bargain with the South Sea Company. He said : "If
your company will undertake to pay off the debt which the Govern-
ment owes to those people who have got annuities, the Government on
its part will give the company certain advantages in the way of money
and credit, which will be of the greatest value to it."
The company agreed to these terms and set to work to carry them
out. They offered to pay anyone who had a Government annuity the
amount that was due to him ; but instead of offering to pay the
annuity in money, as the Government had done, they gave to each
person shares in the South Sea Company. It was believed that these
shares would become very valuable, because everyone thought that the
company, now that the Government supported it, would be very
successful, and would make large profits. Everyone was delighted at
the chance of exchanging the Government annuities for shares in the
company ; they readily gave up the certainty of always getting a small
sum from the Government in the hope that they might, by good fortune,
get a much larger sum from the company.
At first all went well ; indeed, so great was the number of people
620 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
who wanted to get shares in the new company that the price of the
shares went up to ten times their real value. In other words, people
were ready to pay a thousand pounds for a hundred pound share;
they believed that the success of the company would be so great that
they would receive a sufficient profit to repay them even for so great
an expenditure. Soon the success of the South Sea Company led
to the starting of other companies, some of them of the most
absurd kind.
The most extraordinary scenes took place. The eagerness to buy
shares was so great that people soon ceased to inquire whether what
they were buying were of any real value, or whether the new companies
could ever make a profit at all. Never had sugh excitement been
known. But the fashion of buying shares in companies having once
been set, everyone was in a hurry to follow it, without inquiring what
was the business the company intended to undertake and what chance
it had of succeeding. Men and women of all classes, high and low,
rich and poor, were all alike caught by the new fever, all of them
hoping and longing to get rich with the least possible trouble and
in the shortest possible time. It has been reckoned that the shares
in all the different companies amounted to no less than £500,000,000,
or twice the value of all the land in England.
For a short time all seemed to go well. Many people really became
rich by selling shares at very high prices ; those who had bought
the shares believed that they had become rich. It was not long,
however, before the " bubble burst." It soon became clear that all the
fine promises that had been made to the shareholders by those who
got up the different companies were worth nothing at all. Then there
came a terrible time for those who had spent so much money in
buying the worthless shares. Hundreds had spent all they possessed
in buying pieces of paper which were perfectly worthless. They saw
themselves ruined in a day ; and soon, throughout the whole of
England, people learned with dismay that the " South Sea Bubble "
had burst, and that those who had hoped to make their fortune by it
had ruined themselves.
Great indignation was felt by those who had lost their money,
many of whom, however, had no one but themselves to thank. It was
said — and probably with truth — that some of the king's ministers had
made money out of the South Sea Company, and several of them were
turned out of office and out of Parliament. So great wag the suffering
and loss in the country, that Parliament was compelled to interfere
and to help sonic of the chief sufferers. It was on this occasion that
the name of Robert Walpole first became well known, He was a man
THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 621
of a prudent disposition, very skilful in dealing with money matters,
and lie soon won the confidence of the people and of Parliament.
From this time forward his influence increased each year, till, in the
next reign, he became one of the most powerful Prime Ministers that
this country has ever known.
Throughout the whole of his life Walpole was a great lover of
peace, and it was to him more than to anyone else that England owed
her escape from war during the remainder of the reign of George I.
Many attacks were made upon him by the Jacobites, and by some
of the Tory party, but George wisely continued to support him.
On the loth of June, 1727, George I. died in Germany. He is not.
a very notable figure in our English history. Plain, dull and un-
interesting, caring more about Hanover than he did about England, he
was only too willing to let his Ministers govern the English people,
whose language he did not understand and whose country he did
not love. But the reign of George I. is not without importance. The
very fact that the king was unable to take a very active part in
governing the country helped to make the Government chosen by the
majority of Parliament stronger than it had ever been before. The
fact that a Hanoverian king had lived on to the end of his reign in
undisputed possession was also important. The Stuarts and their
French allies had done their best to overthrow him and had failed.
The people of England had clearly shown that, though they did not
care much for the new king himself, they preferred a Protestant
Hanoverian who would govern them in their own way to a Stuart
who was supported by the Roman Catholic Powers, and who still
believed in the " Divine Right " of kings to govern nations against
their will.
CHAPTER LXV.
GEORGE II.
1727—1760.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF GEORGE II.
George II., King of Great Britain and Ire-
land, Elector of Hanover, son of
George I. and Sophia Dorothea, b.
1683, became king 1727, d. 1760.
Caroline of Anspach, wife of George II.,
m. 1705. d. 1737.
Frederick, Prince of Wales, eldest son
of George and Caroline, b. 1707, d.
1751-
AugUSta Of Saxe-Cobr.rg, wife of Frederick,
Prince of Wales, m. 1736.
George, son of PVederick and Augusta,
b. 1738, afterwards king
William Augustus, IHiVe of Cumber-
land, son of George II. and Caroline,
b. 1721, d. 1765.
Anne, daughter of George and Caroline,
d. 175^.
622
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Maty, daughter of George and Caroline.
Louisa, daughter of George and Caroline,
m. Frederick V. of Denmark.
James Edward Stuart, the "Old Pre-
tender.''
Charles Edward Stuart, the "Young
Pretender."
LOUiS XV., King of France.
Charles VI., Emperor, d. 1740.
Charles VII., Emperor 1742, d. 1745.
Maria Theresa, Empress.
Francis I., Emperor, husband of Maria
Theresa.
Frederick William I., King of Prussia, d.
1740.
Frederick the Great, King of Prussia.
Philip V., King of Spain, d. 1746.
Ferdinand VI., King of Spain, d. 1759.
Charles III., King of Spain.
Peter II., Czar of Russia, d. 1730.
Anne, Empress of Russia, d. 1740.
Ivan VI., Czar of Russia (imprisoned for
1 8 years, murdered 1764).
Elizabeth, Empress of Russia 1741.
Principal Ministers of George II. :—
Robert Walpole, Earl of Orford, d.
Viscount Charles Townshend.d. 1738.
Rt. Hon. Charles Townshend.
Thomas Pelham, Duke of New-
castle.
John Carteret, Earl of Granville,
William °Pitt, Earl of Chatham, b.
1708.
Henry Pelham, d. 1754.
Great Writers :—
Daniel Defoe, b. 1661, d. 1731.
Jonathan Swift, b. 1667, d. 1745.
William Congreve, b. 1670, d. 1729.
Richard Steele, b. 1671, d. 1729.
Henry St. John, Lord Bolingbroke,
b. 1678, d. 1751.
Alexander Pope, b. 1688, d 1744.
James Thomson, b. 1700, d. 1748.
Henry Fielding, b. 1707, d. 1754.
Samuel Johnson, b. 1709.
David Hume, b. 1711.
Thomas Gray, b. 1716.
Oliver Goldsmith, b. 1728.
Great Painters :—
William Hogarth (English), b. 1697.
Sir Joshua Reynolds (English), b.
J723-
Robert, Lord Clive, b. 1725.
General James Wolfe, killed at Quebec,
General Sir Eyre Coote.
Admiral Lord George Anson.
Great Musicians : -
J. S. Bach (German), d. 1750
G. F. Handel (German), d. 1759.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE II.
1727. George II. becomes king. 1746-
1739. Persian invasion of India under Nadir
Shah.. 1748.
T74r. Frederick the Great occupies Silesia. 175*-
1742. Walpote is defeated, and retires as
Earl of Orford.
1743. Battle of Dettingen. T755'
1744. Anson returns from his voyage round | 1756.
the world.
1745. Battle of Fontenoy. 1757-
Battle of Prestonpans. I759-
Capture of Cape Breton.
Rebellion in Scotland under Charles
Edward Stuart. 1760.
Battle of Culloden.
Madras taken by the French.
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.
The New Style of reckoning the
Calendar a
Dominions.
Calendar adopted in the
ng the
Britisl
War with France in America.
Beginning of the Seven Years' War.
Pitt, Prime Minister.
Battle of Plassey.
The Wonderful Year.
Battle of Minden.
Battle of Quebec.
Death of George II.
George II. and His Great Prime Minister.— Peace.
"Get place and wealth, if possible with grace ;
If not, by any means get wealth and place. "—Pope.
It was in the year 1727 that George II.,'99) the second of the Hanoverian
kings, came to the throne. He had one advantage over his father —
namely, that he could speak English— but he was not distinguished
in any way for his ability or his personal qualities.
The events which took place during his reign were of great
WALFOLE AND PEACE.
623
importance to our country, but the part which the king himself played
was a small and unimportant one. At the same time, it must not
be forgotten that the very fact of King George succeeding peaceably to
the throne of his father was a matter of importance to the people of
the United Kingdom. George was neither a great man nor an
interesting man,
but he was the
representative of
the Protestant
Succession. The
Stuarts, as we
shall see, had not
yet given up their
hope of regaining
the throne, and
George owed his
security and the
goodwill of his
subjects much
more to their
fear of further
civil war and of
the return of the
Stuarts, than to
any good qualities
of his own.
The reign of
George II. lasted
thirty-three years,
and may roughly
be divided into
two periods — the
first, a period of peace under the ministry of Walpole ; and, the
second, a period of war under the ministry of Pitt, or of those
who were influenced by Pitt. It was during the earlier and peaceful
portion of the reign that the country gained that wealth and strength
which enabled it to pass through the stormy period of war not only
with safety but with success.
The first part of the reign was, as has been said, marked by the
influence of Walpole. In the account of the last reign we learnt
something of this remarkable man, and saw how he first gained
importance by his wise action after the bursting of the " South Sea
GEORGE II.
624
HISTORY or ENGLAXD.
Bubble." But it was not till the reign of George II. that he became
beyond all doubt the most powerful man in the kingdom, and acquired
a position which enabled him to retain his office of Prime Minister for
tli 3 long period of twenty-one years.
It is time, therefore, to devote a few lines to a description of this
great man and of
the methods by
which he obtained
and kept his power.
Robert Walpole
(born 1676, died
1745), afterwards
created Earl of
Orford (1742), first
became a Minister
of the Crown when
he was thirty-two
years of age. He
resigned his office
of Prime Minister
in 1742, when he
was sixty-six years
of age, and after
twenty-one years'
service. The pic-
tures of Walpole,
and all that we
know about him
from those among
whom he lived,
tell us the same
story. He was a
plain, stout, rather Ungainly man, whose conversation and manners,
even in those days, were considered rather coarse. He was a
great lover of power, and was never content to share his power
with others. Indeed, throughout his life it seemed to be his aim to
get rid of all those men of ability who surrounded him, so that he, and
he alone, might become the centre of the Government. To this fact
his fall was at last largely due ; for he succeeded in driving so many of
those who might have been his friends into the ranks of his enemies,
that at length he found the party opposed to him so strong that even
his influence and cleverness could no longer resist its attacks.
SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.
AND PEACE. 6? 5
But while Walpole often seemed anxious to get rid of those who lie
feared might become his rivals, he at all times took care to surround him-
self with an army of supporters who were attached to him, not only
by the favours which they had received at his hands, but by the hope of
further favours to come. It must not be forgotten that Walpole lived
in a time when government by Party had become the rule in England,
and when, in order that a Minister might keep his place, he was bound
to have the support of the majority in Parliament. Walpole knew this
well, and he took steps to win to his side, and keep on his side, the
support of Parliament, and especially of the House of Commons.
The plan which he adopted is one which would, happily, be im-
possible at the present time. It was a simple one, and consisted in
buying or bribing Members of Parliament. In some cases payments
were actually made in money: more often they were made in the
shape of offices, which were given to Members or to their friends as
the price of their support. There can be no doubt whatever that for
many years Walpole bribed and bought the. support of Parliament.
It must be said, however, that the practice was common at the time,
and that he was by no means the only person who adopted it.
On the contrary, it was the regular custom for leaders of the great
parties to reward their followers, or to endeavour to buy the support
of their enemies, by the promise of money, offices, and pensions. The
practice was a very bad one, and Walpole, no doubt, carried it to a
greater extent than it had ever been carried before, but it is only fair
to say that the crime of bribing was not looked upon in those days in
the same way that it now is, and that Walpole only followed the custom
of the times.
It is only just, also, to Walpole, to say that, though beyond doubt
he did bribe Members of Parliament and others, he never forgot what
he thought to be the real interest of the country, and he bought votes
in order to enable him to carry out what he really believed to be the
best and wisest policy for the country. The best and wisest policy he
throughout his life believed to be the policy of Peace. It was his one
hope and aim to avoid a quarrel with any nation, and he showed the
greatest possible skill in keeping out of war. It is true that at last
he allowed England to become engaged in a war with Spain and
France, but it was sorely against his will that he accepted a course
with which he did not agree.
Walpole would, perhaps, have a higher place in the list of great
Englishmen if he had refused to take part in carrying on a war which
he believed to be wrong and unwise. It was, however, always truly said
of him that he preferred to give way rather than rouse great opposition
626 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
One of his wisest proposals— a proposal for a new tax— roused fierce
opposition (1733). Walpole knew that his plan was a good one, and it
has since been adopted ; but rather than create a riot, he gave way
and withdrew his plan.1
Walpole was in many ways a really great man, and England owes
much to his wisdom and good government. He quite understood that
the strength of this country greatly depended upon -its wealth, and
upon the success of its trade and commerce ; and he knew that trade
and commerce could only flourish in a country in which there was
confidence in the Government.
Of Walpole, too, it may be said that he bestowed a boon upon
English farmers for which perhaps they have never been sufficiently
grateful to him. It has been said that the man who confers the greatest
benefit upon mankind is he who makes two blades of grass grow where
only one grew before. Walpole did not quite do this, but he did some-
thing very like it. It was he who first introduced the growth of Root
Crops, such as Turnips, into England. It seems strange, but it is a fact
that up to this time English farmers had known nothing of such crops.
Now, however, they learnt to grow the roots which, ripening in the
autumn, provided their cattle with good food throughout the winter, and
went far to double the value of their farms.
Jenkins's Ear," and War at Last.
"Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!"
Epistle of St. James, iii. 5.
For some years Walpole's power remained almost undisputed. In
the year 1737, however, Queen Caroline/100' the wife of George II., died,
and her death proved a disadvantage to Walpole. Caroline had always
been a good friend to the Prime Minister, and her influence with the
king had made her a useful helper to him in all his troubles. In
Queen Caroline Walpole lost a friend ; in her son, Frederick Prince of
Wales, he found an enemy. Frederick, a worthless young man, had
quarrelled with his father, and he soon became the centre of a party
1 This was a plan for putting an Excise Duty on Wine and Tobacco. An Excise Duly is
one which is colltcted within the country from those who sell the taxed article, instead of being
collected at the seaports from those who import it. At present there is a Customs Duty upon
Wine and Spirits imported into the country, and an Excise Duty upjn Spirits manufactured
within the country.
628 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
which was made up of all those who were discontented with the
Government, and especially of those who were enemies to Walpole.
This new party grew in numbers every year, and Walpole by his
own conduct added to its strength. His hatred of a rival led him
to get rid of some of the cleverest of his supporters, and these former
friends, dismissed from the Ministry and from the king's favour, soon
became leaders of the new party.
At last, in the year 1737, the Opposition felt themselves strong
enough to make an open attack upon the Prime Minister. They
declared that in his efforts for peace he had allowed the interests and
honour of the United Kingdom to suffer. They said that Spain had
insulted and injured British traders, and that the time had come
when war was necessary for the safety and prosperity of the country.
It was quite true that there had been many quarrels between
Englishmen and Spaniards in their fight for the trade of South
America. Acts of violence had been committed on both sides; and
if the Spaniards were at fault, so, too, were the English. But the
minds of Englishmen were easily inflamed by the stories which
reached them. They heard of the injustice which had been done to
their own seamen ; and they heard little of, or paid no attention to,
the Spanish side of the question.
The angry feeling against Spain grew fast, and at last it passed all
bounds when the Opposition brought up in Parliament the story of
" Jenkins's Ear" Jenkins was a sea-captain who had traded to South
America. His story was that he had been taken by the Spaniards,
and that his ear had been torn from his head by his cruel captors.
Jenkins certainly had one ear missing; and, in proof of the truth
of what he said, he would take an ear from a box which he carried and
show it to his audience. Whether Jenkins ever had his ear cut off by
the Spaniards at all is not certain. There were some who declared
that Jenkins was a rogue who had had his ear cut off in the pillory by
the common hangman; but whatever were the truth of the story,
it served its purpose. Parliament and the people, already angry with
Spam, readily believed the tale which agreed with their own view.
The cry was all for war, and Walpole, much against his will, at last
gave way and war was declared (1739).
629
Continental Quarrels, and the Ris£ of Prussia.
"That formidable confederacy of France, Austria, Russia, and Sweden,
seemed determined to inclose and crush the King of Prussia." — Horace
Walpok, Lord Orford : " Memoirs of the Last Ten Years," written of the beginning of
the year 1757.
" The year concluded with a torrent of glory for the King of Prussia. "
(The same, written of the end of the year 1757.)
We have now come to the beginning of the long series of wars which
lasted, almost without stopping, from 1739 to 1815, or seventy-six years
— wars in which England was almost always concerned. It is not
possible in this book to follow all the ins and outs of the quarrels
which took place between the different nations of Europe. As in the
previous reign, there were many changes, and those nations which one
year had been bitter enemies, fought in the next year as allies against
those who had but a short time before been their friends.
But, though the history of all this fighting is rather bewildering,
there are one or two things which stand out quite clearly throughout
it all. Whatever happened, England and France were sure to find them-
selves opposed to each other ; that is the first thing to notice. It was
enough for France to take the side of any other European nation to
make England for the time that nation's enemy, and the same thing
might be said with equal truth of the behaviour of France towards
those who sided with England.
The second thing to notice is the rise of the Kingdom of Prussia.
Already Prussia had become an important State under its Prince or
Elector, Frederick, known as the "Great Elector," and the Prussian army
had been formed and prepared for war.
In 1740, the thirteenth year of George II., Frederick, known in
history as " Frederick the Great," ascended the throne of Prussia. His
active spirit, his determination, and his skill in war, made him one of
the most remarkable and most important personages in Europe. It
was his aim and object to make the Kingdom of Prussia the chief
among the German States. For many centuries Austria had held the
place which he sought for Prussia ; and hence it was against Austria,
under the rule of the famous Empress, Maria Theresa, that he fought
for the greater part of his lite. When France and Austria sided
together, Frederick fought them both ; when France offered help
against Austria, he accepted French help.
630 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
England, as the great Protestant country, was justly looked upon as
the natural friend and ally of Prussia ; but at one time, when Frederick
had joined with France against Austria, Prussia was actually at war
for a short time with England, partly because England was friendly
to the Austrians, and partly because England was sure to be found on
the opposite side to France. It is pleasant, however, to think that
though Prussia and England were for a short time supposed to be at
war with one another, no battle was ever fought between them,
nor have Englishmen and Prussians at any time shed each other's
blood in war.
The third great point which we have to notice in the wars of
George II., as in the wars of George I., is that, while the fortunes
of England in Europe varied greatly — while British armies, though
often victorious, often suffered defeat— outside Europe, in the countries
beyond the seas, in America, in India, in the West, and in the East,
the power and influence of Britain grew steadily from year to year,
while that of her great rivals — France and Spain— grew less and less.
We must now go back to Walpole and the war in which he had
engaged so much against his will. It would have been better if the
Prime Minister had dared to be true to his own policy, tor by giving
way he did not succeed in keeping the power for which he cared
so much. His enemies had become strong enough to defeat him, and
at last, in the year 1742, he gave up his office and retired from the
Government. He had been thirty-four years in the Government and
for twenty-one years Prime Minister.1
Thus ended the public life of the great " Peace Minister." Already
England's greatest " War Minister " was rising into fame. In 1735
William Pitt entered Parliament, and joined the party of the Opposition
around the Prince of Wales. In a very few years Pitt was to become
an even greater and more famous Minister than Walpole himself:
but between the fall of Walpole and the time when Pitt became a
Minister several years of trial and trouble had to be passed through
by this country.
1 On his retirement Walpole was made Earl of Orford.
The " Young Pretender" and His Friends^
"The news frae Moidart cam' yestreen
Will soon gar mony ferlie ; l
F.or ships o' war hae just come in
And landit Royal Charlie." — Lady Nairne.
In 1741 a fierce war broke out between Frederick, King of Prussia,
and Austria, then under the rule of the Empress Maria Theresa. England
took the side of Austria; France sided with Prussia. A British army,
composed of British and Hanoverian troops, entered Flanders. On
the 27th of June, 1743, a battle was fought at Dettingen, on the banks
of the Maine-, in Germany, between the forces of the British and their
allies on the one hand, and the French on the other. King George
himself was present with the army, and behaved well in the presence
of danger. He was the last English king actually present in battle.
The king's army was outnumbered, but the bravery of the troops not
only averted defeat, but secured a hardly-won victory, and the French
were compelled to retreat. Meanwhile, however, Prussia had beaten
Austria, and had succeeded in taking from it the Province of Silesia,
which from that day down to the present time has formed part of the
kingdom of Prussia; and thus England and France were left to fight
out a quarrel which both had begun on behalf of another nation. On
the nth of May, 1745, a mixed army of British, Dutch, and Austrian
troops was defeated by the French Marshal Saxe, after a hardly
contested battle at Fontenoy, in Holland. The battle itself had little
influence upon future events.
Now that France was openly at war with England, it was natural
that the French should do all in their power to weaken their enemies
at home as well as to defeat them abroad. An easy way presented
itself to the French Government. James Stuart, the son of King James
II. — whom we have read about under the name of the "Old Pretender"
— was advanced in years and disinclined for further adventures, but
his cause was not without a champion.
His son, Charles Edward Stuart (97' — known in history as the " Young
Pretender," and called by many the "Young Chevalier" — was as ready
as his father had been to strike a blow for the recovery of the crown
which he claimed. For a long time his chances had seemed hopeless.
1 " Make many wonder.
632 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Walpole had kept the peace with France ; and without the aid of
France success was not to be hoped for. Now, however, matters had
changed, and the French Government, though not very forward in
giving Charles Edward either men or money, was quite ready to
encourage him in an adventure which might do harm to England
and could do no harm to France.
In 1745— the same year as the battle of Fontenoy —Charles sailed
CHARLES HOWARD STUART, "THE YOUNG PRETENDER."
from France with a small French squadron of two ships — the Elizabeth
and the Doutcllc ; but a British 58-gun ship, the Lion, caught them at
sea, and, after a sharp fight, drove them back to port. A second time
Charles put to sea, and this time succeeded in reaching the coast of
Scotland in the little Doutcllc.
He lauded at Loch na Nuagh, in Inverness-shire, on the 25th July,
THE "'FOR TV- Fir p.." 633
1745, and immediately called upon the Highlanders, and all friends of
the Stuart cause, to help him. In sonic respects, the "Young Pre-
tender" had an advantage over his father; for he was really a
handsome and bravo young man, who earned the love, if not the
respect, of all who fought for him.
"Charlie is mv darling, the young Chevalier,"
so runs one of the Scottish songs. Perhaps the Scots, like many other
people in similar cases, thought more of their young Prince after they
had lost him than while they had got him.
At the same time, there can be no doubt that Prince Charlie was
a man not unworthy to play an important part. But if the " Young
Pretender " had some advantages on his side, in some respects he was
far worse off than his father had been ; for, in the first place, the
Government of George II. was in a much stronger position than that
of George I. had been, and the Jacobite party in England was no
longer prepared to fight. In the second place, since the landing of the
"Old Pretender," in 1715, roads had been made in the Highlands by
General Wade, and it thus became possible for the Royal troops to
march into the country of the Mac Donalds and other clans on whose
help the Pretender chiefly relied.
The "'Forty-Five.'
"As for the people, the spirit against the rebels increases every day.
Though they have marched thus far into the heart of the kingdom there
has not been the least symptom of a rising, not even in the great towns
of which they possessed themselves. They get no recruits since their
first entry into England, excepting one gentleman in Lancashire, 150
common men, and two parsons at Manchester, and a physician from York.
But here in London the aversion to them is amazing. " — Horace WalpoWs
letters to Sir Horace Mann, gth December, 1745.
There is not space here to tell at length the story of the Rebellion of
1745. For a short time the slow movements and the bad generalship
of the Royal generals favoured Charles, and allowed him to win a
brief success. General Cope marched northwards from Edinburgh with
an army of 3,000 men. Instead of meeting him, the Pretender passed
by him and hastened southward. Sir John Cope, fearful for the safety
of the capital, took ship at Inverness, and landed at Dunbar. It was
634 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
too late, however ; already Charles had reached Edinburgh, and taken
possession of Holyrood, the ancient palace of the Scottish kings. The
strong castle of Edinburgh was safely held for the king, but the city
was at the mercy of the rebels.
On the 2ist of September was fought the battle of Prestonpans, upon
the Firth of Forth, a few miles to the east of Edinburgh. Cope's troops
were unable to resist the fierce charge of the Highlanders ; they broke,
and fled in confusion from the field.
How the Highlanders fought both on this occasion, when victory
crowned their arms, and on other occasions, when the fortune of battle
turned against them, is finely described in the following passage taken
from Sir Walter Scott's great novel of " Waverley " : —
" Both lines were now moving forward, the first prepared for instant combat. The
Brians of which it was composed formed each a sort of separate phalanx, narrow in front,
and in depth ten, twelve, or fifteen files, according to the strength of the following. The
best armed and best born, for the words were synonymous, were placed in front of each
of these irregular subdivisions. The others in the rear shouldered forward the front
and by their pressure added both physical impulse and additional ardour and confidence
to those who were first to encounter the danger.
" The clansmen on every side stript their plaids, prepared their arms, and there was
an awful pause of about three minutes, during which the men, pulling off their bonnets,
raised their faces to heaven and uttered a short prayer ; then pulled their bonnets over
their brows, and began to move forward, at first slowly. The pipes played, and the
clans rushed forward, each in its own dark column. As they advanced they mended
their pace, and the muttering sounds of the men to each other began to swell into a
wild cry.
" The line of the regulars was formed directly fronting the attack of the Highlanders;
it glittered with the appointments of a complete army, and was flanked by cavalry and
artillery. But the sight impressed no terror on the assailants.
" ' Forward, sons of Ivor,' cried their Chief, ' or the Camerons will draw the first
blood ! ' They rushed on with a tremendous yell. The rest is well known. The
horse, who were commanded to charge the advancing Highlanders in the flank, received
an irregular fire from their fusees as they ran on, and, seized with a disgraceful panic,
wavered, halted, disbanded, and galloped from the field. The artillerymen, deserted
by the cavalry, fled after discharging their pieces ; and the Highlanders, who dropped
their guns when fired, and drew their broadswords, rushed with headlong fury against
the infantry."
635
The March to Derby— Culloden,
"Lochiel, Lochiel ! beware of the day
When the Lowlands shall meet thee in battle array!
For a field of the dead rushes red on my sight,
And the Clans of Culloden are scattered in flight."
Campbell: " Lochiel' s Warning."
After some delay the rebels crossed the Border, and marched south-
ward into England. But the time had gone by when they could hope
for success in that country, and the Royal army, despite its slow
movement, was now gradually collecting together and surrounding the
Pretender's little force. Still the Scots advanced without finding
serious opposition, till on the 4th of December, 1745, they entered the
town of Derby. But this was the furthest point they were to reach.
The greatest alarm prevailed in London. The king actually
prepared to leave the country ; and it was believed by all that, should
the Pretender reach London, a French invasion would immediately
follow. Luckily, at this point the strength of the invading force
seemed spent, and instead of pressing on to London, the Scots turned
and made their way back again to the North. The entry of the
Scottish army into Derby is a memorable event in our history, It was,
happily, the last occasion on which a successful invading army has
made its way on to English soil. It was the last effort of civil war in
England. For many a year afterwards that day was remembered, and
there are those still alive who may have actually heard from the
lips of men who were children at the time the story of the coming of
the wild Highlanders, with their claymores and their kilts, their
bagpipes and their strange speech, into a peaceful town in the very
heart of England.
Charles hastened back to Scotland, where he was joined by a
considerable number of friends and by a small party of French troops.
His army, now raised to 9,000 men, had become formidable, and had
shown its strength in a battle which was fought against the Royal troops
under General Hawley at Falkirk, in Stirlingshire, January 23, 1746.
For the last time, the charge of the Highlanders was successful, and
Hawley's troops were forced to retreat. But by this time the Duke
of Cumberland with his army had reached Scotland.
On the ioth of April the two forces met upon Cullodeu Moor, near
636
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Inverness. Fora while it seemed as if victory would once more favour
the Pretender ; and the fierce charge of the Highlanders broke for a
time the lines of the regular troops. But the jealousies which at all
times divided the Highland clans now made themselves felt with fatal
effect. The MacDonalds declared that they, and they alone, had the
PRINCE CHARLIE'S VANGUARD AT MANCHESTER.
right to charge upon the right of the line. Charles had placed them on
the left ; the insult was one not to be borne, and they refused to budge.
Cumberland's artillery and the steady bravery of the English troops
restored the fortunes of the battle ; the rebels were defeated, and the
Highlanders fled to their mountains.
THE PEACE OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE. 637
Charles Edward escaped almost alone from the field of battle. For
many days he was a hunted fugitive through the country over which he
had hoped to rule. A high price was offered for his capture ; but the
Highlanders to whom he was compelled to trust himself were all true
men— not one of them betrayed him. A romantic story is told of how
the Prince was aided in his flight by a young lady of the name of
Flora MacDonald, who led him past the careful watch of the enemy, dis-
guised as her serving-maid, in a woman's clothes. It was not till the
end of September — five months after the battle of Culloden — that
Charles succeeded in escaping to France.
In the Highlands the rebellion was punished with great severity
by Cumberland. It was the object of the Government to break up the
clans, and so to put an end at once and for all to the danger which
always existed as long as their strength was unbroken. The wearing
of the Highland garb — the kilt and plaid — was forbidden ; and many
of those who had sided with the Pretender were put to death, or
deprived of their lands as rebels taken in arms. It is possible that
unnecessary harshness was shown in putting down the rebellion,
but there can be no doubt that the victory ot Culloden saved Great
Britain from a very serious disaster. The memory of " Bonnie
Prince Charlie " lingered long among the faithful Highlanders; and a
few scattered Jacobites who had followed their leader into exile con-
tinued to speak of " King Charles III.," who was some day to win back
the crown of his fathers. But that day never came ; and with the
close of the " 'Forty-Five,'" as the rebellion which broke out in this
year came to be called, the danger of a Stuart Restoration, and with
it the fear of civil war, died away.
The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle.
"Now Europe balanced, neither side prevails,
For nothing's left in either of the scales." — Swift.
But though the war had come to a successful conclusion at home, it
was being carried on less fortunately on the Continent. In 1746, the
year of the Battle of Culloden, William Pitt first became a Minister
of the Crown. Before his death he was destined to raise the fortunes
of the country to the highest point, but his influence had not yet
become greatly felt, and in Europe our troops suffered disaster. The
Duke of Cumberland, who had been sent with a British army to
638 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Flanders, was defeated at the battle of Laufeldt, and the fortress of
Bergen-op-Zoom, on the borders of Holland, was taken by the French.
But once more it must be noted that while bad fortune overtook
our armies in Europe, in distant countries across the sea British power
still grew, and grew at the expense of the power of France. If we look
at the map of Canada, we shall see that off the northern point of
Nova Scotia is an island called Cape Breton Island. Its importance is
made clear directly we study the map, for it guards the entrance to
the great Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the mouth of the River St. Lawrence,
by which the cities of Quebec, Montreal, and Ottawa, and the great Lake
of Ontario are reached. In the year 1745 Cape Breton Island was cap-
tured from the French by a British expedition ; and what was more
important than the capture of one island was the fact that the British
Navy showed its superiority over its opponent in almost every sea.
But, though there were gains and losses on both sides, little profit
seemed to come to any of the nations engaged in the war, and all
parties were ready to join in signing the Treaty of Peace at Aix-la-
Chapelle1 in October, 1748. All conquests which had been made
during the war by England or France were given up. France gave
up Madras in India, which had been taken by General Labourdonnais
on September ist, 1746, and England gave up Cape Breton Island.
Now, at last, affcsr many years of fighting, there was once more
peace, but unluckily it was a peace which was to last for a very short
time. The Prime Minister was Henry Pelham, younger brother to the
then Duke of Newcastle ; but the most active man in Parliament, and
already one of the most powerful, was William Pitt. The Ministry
of Pelham did not last long, for he died in the year 1754. Three years
earlier, Frederick, (101) Prince of Wales, who so long had been an enemy
to his father's Government, had also died. His death was not a loss
to his country, for he was a man who could hardly have made a wise
king. He, was little esteemed or respected by any party.
1 The short period of peace which followed the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was not without
value to the country, for it allowed a very important change to be made in the rate of interest
payable upon the National Debt. The interest was now reduced to ^3 for every j£ioo, or to
3 per cent. This was a very great saving to the country, which had been paying 5 per cent. >
6 per cent.— and, indeed, in the reign of William III., as much as % per cent.— on all the money
which was borrowed by the Government. Three per cent, is a very small rate of interest to be
paid for the loan of ;£ioo ; but the Government of England had now become so strong, and was
thought to be so secure, that those who had saved money were willing to put it into the "Three
Per Cents.," because they knew that, whatever happened, they were certain to be paid, and
would not lose their money. For m%re than one hundred and fifty years the interest paid by the
Government of the United Kingdom remained at 3 per cent. ; and it was not till the year 1891
that the amount of interest was reduced still further to £2 155., and in some cases to as little
as ^2 i os.« for every ;£ioo borrowed.
640 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
War by Land and Sea— The Loss of Minorca.
' . . . dans ce pays-ci il est bon de tuer de terns en terns un
Am/ml pour encourager les autres."1 — Voltaire: " Candide."
On the death of Pelham, his brother — the Duke of Newcastle — became
Prime Minister. Newcastle was a man without either judgment or
ability, whose only strength as a Minister came from the support of
the king, whom he flattered and sought to please in every way, and
from the large sums of money which he was able to spend in buying
the support of Members of Parliament and others on whom he
depended.
Between Pitt and Newcastle there was from the first a fierce
enmity, and Pitt's proud and eager spirit refused to submit to be ruled
by a man whom he knew to be stupid, and whom he believed to be
careless of the honour and welfare of England. It soon became clear
that if the policy of Pitt were to prevail there would be war, for
already conflicts had begun between English and French, both in
America and India, and Pitt was determined that neither in the West
nor in the East should the influence of Britain be diminished.
Soon the war which had been threatening so long broke out into
flame, both in America and in India. Fighting which had begun
between the English and French on the spot, without the consent
of the Governments of either Britain or France, was continued, much
against Newcastle's will, with all the force of the two countries ; and
no longer in distant countries only, but in European waters, and upon
the continent of Europe. King George, who, like his father, cared
more about Hanover than he did about England, was most concerned
for the safety of his Electorate. He allied himself with his old enemy,
Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, and, through the Duke ot
Newcastle, sent large sums to Frederick and the other German
princes who undertook to fight on his side.
But though Pitt desired the war, and wanted nothing better than
an opportunity to carry it on, he was determined that Newcastle
should not direct it ; and so fierce was his opposition that at length,
in the year 1756, Newcastle was driven from office. It was none too
1 Translation : " In this country (England) it is considered a good plan to put an Admiral to
death every now and then, in order to encourage the others." Voltaire, the famous and witty
French writer, is here laughing at the English for their Ireatment of Admiral Byng. The phrase.
" pour encourager les autres " has, become a common saying.
THE Loss OF MINORCA. 641
soon ; for already a great calamity had befallen our armies. A French
expedition had been sent to attack the island of Minorca, in the
Mediterranean — an island which since the year 1708 had been in the
possession of Great Britain. Admiral Byng was sent with a fleet to
raise the siege. He fell in with the French fleet, but too late to
prevent the landing of the troops. Having counted the ships, he
thought them too strong to meddle with, and withdrew without firing
a gun. After a brave resistance, the garrison of Minorca was forced
to surrender.
Byng returned to England to be received with an outbreak of
fierce anger. What could be more disgraceful than that a British
admiral should desert a British garrison without striking a blow to
save it ? The Admiral was tried by court-martial and sentenced to
death. The court-martial did its duty ; but the law which compelled
it to sentence Byng to death was a hard one, and it would have been
a wise and a right thing if the king had pardoned the prisoner. He
desired to do so, and his Ministers, and Parliament itself would rather
have spared the life of the Admiral. But the fury of the people knew
no bounds ; they called for a victim, and Byng was sacrificed. He was
shot by a file of Marines on board the Monarch.
It might have been right to shoot Admiral Byng as a punishment
for his failure, but it could not have been right to shoot him because
the people clamoured for his death. It is hard even for those who
have been brought up all their lives as lawyers, and who have been
trained as judges to be impartial and just, not to make mistakes in
their decisions. It is quite unreasonable to look for justice or reason
in the judgments of a multitude of men who have never been taught to
weigh the value or the truth of charges, and who are moved only by
their own passions and their own angry feelings.
642 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
CHAPTER LXVI.
CLIVE, WOLFE, AND WASHINGTON.
War— England and France in India and America.
"'Tis dangerous, when the baser nature comes
Between the pass and f elf-incensed points
Of mighty opposites. "
Shakespeare: "Hamlet."
WHILE Britain had lost an important possession in Europe in the
shape of the island of Minorca, her empire was being slowly but surely
extended in other lands. Before reading this and the next two
chapters, it will be well to look carefully at two maps in the best atlas
we can find. In these two maps we shall be able to read the end
of the story of which the beginning only can be told in the reign
of George II.
The first map is that of the Peninsula of India. From where the
dark shading at the top indicates the lofty ranges of the Hindu-Kush,
down to the point where Ceylon hangs like a pearl-drop from the
mainland at the bottom, we see a continuous red line drawn round the
peninsula. That red line means that India from north to south, from
Chitral to Cape Comorin, and the island of Ceylon as well, now form part
of the British Empire, of which we all are citizens.1
There will be seen on the map patches of a different colour which
show the "Native" States, which are governed by Native Indian
Princes, but which are friendly to us and all of which are controlled
by the Government of India. When we come to look at the scale of
miles at the side of the map, and to measure India from top to bottom
and from side to side, we shall find that it is more than 2,000 miles long
and almost 2,000 miles broad. Its area is 1,560,130 square miles, and
its population is no less than 287^ millions. This is indeed a great
and wonderful possession to be ruled over by the people of our little
islands; and when we learn how different was our position .in India
1 The total area of British India is 964,993 square miles, and the population is 221,172,200
(i8gt). The area of the Native States is 595,167 square miles, and the population amounts to
66 047,487 (1891).
ENGLAND AND FRANCE, &c. 643
one hundred and fifty years ago from what it is now, the wonder
becomes greater still.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century the power of Britain in
India was represented only by a few traders and officers sent out by
the Honourable East India Company. Their principal station was in Fort
George, which was close to, and now forms a part of, the city of Madras.
There were a few other British settlements, but it could not even be
said that, among the European Powers which possessed settlements
in India, England was the most important. The first place was held
by France, whose chief town was Pondicherry, about 100 miles to the
south of Madras. Pondicherry is French to this day, but it is almost
the only possession which France retains to tell us of the great power
which that country once possessed in the Peninsula.
How it came about that the red line which marks the limit of the
British Empire spread and spread until it surrounded the whole
country, how the power of France in India was broken, and how, one
after another, the various Native States were either conquered or won
to the side of the British Government, will be very shortly told in
this chapter ; and in telling the story we shall tell also that of the life
of one of the greatest Englishmen who ever set foot in India — namely,
Robert Clive. For the story of the rise of British power in India and
the story of the life of Robert Clive are one and the same.
And now let us turn to another map representing a country in the
West — a country, or, indeed, a continent, greater and richer even than
the splendid peninsula of India. Let us turn to the map of the North-
American Continent. We all know what are the great facts which that
map can teach us. From the Arctic Circle, on the north, down to the
borders of Mexico, only 26° north of the Equator, we see everywhere
familiar English names, but the red line which marks the limits of the
British Empire does not include the ''north-western corner of the
continent, nor the enormous country which stretches from the Atlantic
to the Pacific south of the 4Qth parallel. These portions form The
United States of America, the great . English-speaking Republic of the
West. Between Alaska and the northern frontier of the United States
lies the immense stretch of the Dominion of Canada, under the British
flag ; while in the Atlantic the red line surrounds Newfoundland, the
West Indian Islands, and Bermuda.
On the American continent the last hundred and fifty years have
seen a change even greater than that which we have witnessed iu
India. In the year 1700 the power and influence of Britain in North
America was small, and was disputed, as in India, by the power of
France. The English colonists who had settled in the New England
644 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
States and in Canada found themselves menaced on every side by the
French, who held large territories in the Southern State of Louisiana, and
also in the Valley of the St. Lawrence. Already there was grave reason
to fear lest the French should join hands between their northern and
southern possessions behind the back of the English settlers, and thus
hem in the New England States and shut them off for ever from the
great continent to the West.
How it came about that the power of France faded away and was
replaced by the power of England, how it was that the English language
and not the French became the common speech of 70,000,000 people,
must be told in this book ; and to this story must be added another
which will tell us how it came about that the English-speaking people
of North America came to be divided among themselves, and how out
of the whole English-speaking population which owned George II. as
its king there grew up not one great State but two — the Dominion
of Canada, ever loyal to the British crown, and the United States,
the great Republic which owes it no allegiance.
The story of the fall of the power of France in America and the
rise of the power of Britain is the story of the life and death of
General Wolfe. The story of the division among the English-speaking
people and of the rise of the United States is the story of George
Washington. And it is of these three great men, Clive, Wolfe, and
Washington, that we are now about to read.
Clive.
"It might have been expected that every Englishman who takes any
interest in any part of history would be curious to know how a handful of
his countrymen, separated from their home by an immense ocean, sub-
jugated, in the course of a few years, one of the greatest empires in the
world." — Macaulay : "Lord Clive."
In 1744, the year before the march of the Pretender to Derby, a young
man of the name of Robert Clive, who had obtained employment as a
writer or clerk in the service of the Honourable East India Company,
landed at Madras. It was nearly two years since he had set out from
his home in Shropshire ; for in those days of sailing ships a voyage to
the East lasted many months, and Clive had been forced to break his
journey, much against his will, at more than one place on the way out.
646
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
When the young man first entered his office in Madras, the East India
Company, of which he was a servant, was little more than a business
concern, which owned a certain number of Settlements, or " Factories,"
in India, at which they were allowed by the native rulers to carry on
their trade.
The chief of these settlements were at Bombay, on the west coast ;
at Calcutta, in the Bay
of Bengal; and at
Madras, on the south-
east coast, in that part
of India known as the
Carnatic. The French,
like the British, had
also important trading
settlements in India,
and, thanks to the
genius and bravery of
Dupleix, the Governor,
and of Bussy, a French
officer, they had suc-
ceeded in obtaining a
stronger position than
their English rivals.
At the time of which
we speak India was in
a state of confusion
and conflict. The
Mogul Emperors who
ruled in Delhi had
ROBERT, LORD OLIVE. for a long time past
{After the portrait by Gainsborough.) exercised authority
over the greater part
of India ; but in the year 1739 the Mogul Empire was overthrown,
and the various princes and chiefs who had in the past recognised
the rule of the Moguls now entered into a fierce struggle among
each other for the right to rule India. They little thought that the
despised power which was represented by the British merchants in a
few coast towns was to win that which they hoped to obtain. Still
less could they have imagined that the young clerk who had
just begun his duties in an office in Madras was soon to dictate
terms and treaties to the strongest of them.
One of the first events in the struggle between the various native
CLIFF. 647
princes was the entry of the French into the fight. A small French
force joined one of the native princes as his ally. Then suddenly it
became clear to all India how great was the power of a drilled
European force, however small. Victory crowned the French arms
again and again. Dupleix quickly took advantage of the opportunity.
He believed, and he had good reason to believe, that by making use of
the quarrels between the various Native States, France might become
mistress of India. He had, however, not reflected that what one
European power could do, another could do equally well, or better.
No sooner had the French been called in on one side than the British
were called in on the other. On either side the number of European
soldiers was very small ; but wherever the Europeans appeared they
seemed irresistible.
At first the fortunes of war were against the British and their
allies. Madras itself was taken by the French (1746) ; while an attack
on Pondicherry, the principal French settlement, was defeated. But
the fighting had given Clive his opportunity. He hated his office-work
and longed for the work of a soldier. He offered his services as a
volunteer, and they were accepted. When Madras fell he refused the
French terms which would have bound him not to serve against them
again, and he escaped capture. He soon found plenty of employment
in his new profession.1
From that day forward he became the soul of the English party in
India. To brilliant bravery in the field he added all the qualities
which go to make a great general. Although peace had been made
between England and France in 1748, there was no peace between the
two countries in India itself, for the soldiers of the two countries took
part, as before, as allies of the native princes on either side.
The tide of victory, which had hitherto been in favour of the French
party, now turned. In 1751 Clive, with a tiny force, captured the town
of Arcot, and held it through a seven weeks' siege. The name of the
defender of Arcot became famous throughout India. Again and again
he turned threatened defeat into victory by his energy and his bravery.
He returned to England for a short time in 1753, but was soon sent
back again to fill a high office in the service of the Company.
It was at this time that there took place the terrible tragedy which
is connected in our history with the name of the " Black Hole of
Calcutta" (1756). Surajah Dowlah, the Nawab (or native ruler) of
Bengal, had attacked the British settlement of Calcutta, and the force
was too small to defend it. The British retired in haste to their
1 Madras was given back to England in 1748, in accordance with the terms of the Treaty of
Aix-la Chapelle (see page 638).
648 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
3, but 14 3 persons were left behind. They were taken prisoners,
and confined in a little room in which they could barely stand.
The next day they were to be brought before Surajah Dowlah.
It was the height of the Indian summer, and the prisoners knew that
they could not live through the night in that confined space. They
begged to be brought before the Nawab. They were told that the
Nawab was asleep and no man dare wake him. The night passed and
morning came, and only twenty-three of the unhappy prisoners were
alive. But it was not long before Calcutta became once more British.
Early in the next year it was retaken by Clive and Admiral Watson,
and has ever since been the chief of the British possessions in India.
The Battle of Plassey, and the Conquest of Bengal.
"From Cliue's third visit to India dates the purity of the administration
of our Eastern Empire. . ... He first made dauntless and unsparing
war on that gigantic system of oppression, extortion, and corruption. In
that war he manfully, put to hazard his ease, his fame, and his splendid
fortune." — Macaulay : ''Lord Clive."
On the 23rd of January, 1757, was fought the battle of Plassey, near
Calcutta, in which Clive, at the head of a little army of 950 Europeans
and 2,300 natives and half-castes, boldly confronted an army of 68,000
men, with fifty-three guns, under Surajah Dowlah, assisted by a small
body of forty Frenchmen. Never was a battle more easily won, and
seldom have greater consequences followed a single battle. But the
victory cannot be put down altogether to the valour of the victorious
army, for there can be no doubt that a large number of Surajah
Dowlah's troops turned traitors on the field of battle. The British lost
twenty-three killed, of whom seven were Europeans, and forty-nine
wounded, of whom thirteen were Europeans. The enemy's loss was
about 1,000 men, but their army was broken up and dispersed, and the
victory made Clive and the English masters of Bengal.
From this day the name of Clive became famous throughout India,
and also throughout the United Kingdom. On his return to London
he became Member of Parliament for Shrewsbury. He was made an
Irish peer, with the title of Lord Clive, in 1761. He returned more
than once to India, and on each occasion gave fresh proof of his skill
and bravery as a soldier and of his wisdom and statesmanship as
a governor. Under his rule the British, who had nearly be*n driven
PLASSEY, AND THE CONQUEST OF BENGAL 649
out of Bengal, became masters of the three great provinces of Bengal,
Beliar, and Orissa, which lie to the north of Calcutta, and the influence
of the British was extended through the Native States, and especially
through the great district of Oude. The influence of the French, which
only a few years before had been so great, was for a time all but
destroyed.
Two other great achievements must be remembered when we speak
of Lord Clive. It was he who first tried to carry out the rule, which
is now strictly observed in India, that those who take part in the
government of the country shall never accept payments from those whom
they govern, or engage in trade for their own benefit. This is a most im-
portant rule, for nothing can be worse for those whose duty it is to
govern wisely and well than to take payments from those whom they
govern. Such payments soon become bribes paid by wealthy men
who wish to obtain favours. In the same way, there is always a great
danger in allowing the servants of a government to engage in trade on
their own account ; for there is a great temptation held out to them to
govern not in the interests of the country but in their own interests
and with the object of making money.
Clive did not altogether succeed in compelling the servants of the
East India Company to observe the new rules, but great credit is due
to him for being the first who really tried to carry them out.
In the year 1766 he won still another victory, which was perhaps
greater and more difficult to win than the Battle of Plassey. In that
year the British officers belonging to the Native regiments in the
Company's service, being discontented with their pay, mutinied, and
threatened to disobey the orders of the Company. It was a moment
of terrible danger, and Clive knew that if he were once to give way,
all would be lost. He knew that discipline and obedience to
orders are the first duties of a soldier. He refused to listen to the
threats of the officers. With a few who were faithful, he went to the
different regiments and pointed out the wickedness and folly of the
mutiny, and threatened instant punishment to those who did not
return to their duty at once. His firmness succeeded ; nearly all the
officers returned to their duty ; a few only were punished. From that
day to this the British officers in India have ever been among the most
faithful and courageous servants of their sovereign and their country.
In 1767 Clive left India for the last time. The end of his life was
not a happy one, for he was bitterly attacked by those who had been
offended by what he had done in India. So bitter were the attacks
that at last the unhappy victim, tormented beyond all endurance, lost
his reason, and ended his great career by taking his own life (1774).
650 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
It is to him, more than to any other man, that we owe our great Indian
Empire ; and it is by reading the history of his life that we learn how
the "red line of British Dominion" in India extended so far and so
fast in the reign of George II., and how the French power faded
away and was destroyed.
Wolfe.
"Under these was Wolfe, a young officer who had contracted reputa-
tion from his intelligence of discipline, and from the perfection to which he
had brought his own regiment. The world could not expect more from him
than he thought himself capable of performing. He looked on danger as
the favourable moment that would call forth his talents." — Horace Walpole,
Lord Or ford, : " Memoirs of the Last Ten Years."
We have just seen how, owing to the genius of Olive, England
and not France gained the upper hand in India. We have
now to learn how it was that in the far West, as well as in the far
East, the power and the right to govern fell into the hands of English-
speaking people.
In the West, as in the East, it seemed for a time as if the power of
France were destined to prevail over that of England ; and in the year
1758 the condition of the British Colonies in America was one of great
danger. In that year, however, Pitt determined that he would make a
great effort to regain the ground that had been lost. A large fleet and
army under Lord Boscawen were sent across the Atlantic, while the
colonists themselves were formed into regiments under the command
of officers appointed by the King. Among these officers was -George
Washington, who in the command of his Virginian troops was able to
give an early proof of his powers as a leader and a soldier.
For some time the campaign continued without great advantage to
either side. Louisburg was captured by the British, who were in their
turn defeated near Ticonderoga. Fort Duquesne was gallantly captured
by Washington, who had been despatched from General Forbes's force
for the purpose of taking it. The Virginian officer planted the " Union
Jack" upon the captured fort, and gave to the place the name of
Pittsburg, in honour of the great British Minister in whose service he
was fighting. From the year 1758 the fortunes of the struggle against
France in America began to improve.
We have already seen that in her battles near home, England
during the early years of Pitt's time in office had not been very for-
MAJOR WASHINGTON PLANTING THE UNION JACK ON FORT DUQURSNE.
652
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
tunate ; but, despite bad fortune, Pitt had always believed in the power
of Britain if only that power could be rightly used.
As a great Minister at home, he himself could do much, but he
could not do everything. He required men of courage and ability to
carry out the plans which he made. He had found such a man in
Clive, and Clive had worked wonders in India. He now sought for
another leader who could do in the West what Clive- had done in the
East. He was fortunate enough to find one. In the same year in
MAP OF EASTERN CANADA AND THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE.
wh/ch the battle of Plassey was won, a British expedition attacked the
French seaport of Rochefort. The expedition was a failure ; but one
man, by his courage, attracted the attention of Pitt. This was Colonel
"Woife, an officer serving under General Mordaunt.
A year later, Pitt chose Wolfe for a command in America. The
English colonists were hard pressed in that country. Montcalm, who
commanded the French army, was a brave and skilful soldier, and he
had the great advantage of being in possession of the strong fortress of
Quebec, on the River St. Lawrence. The fortress of Quebec is situated
on a rocky hill which overhangs the river. It was strongly defended,
and seemed able to resist all attack; but few things are impossible
to a brave and resolute commander whose soldiers will follow him
anywhere.
WOLFE.
653
Just beyond Quebec is the high ground, known as the Heights of
Abraham. The steep crags seemed in themselves to form a sufficient
defence, and they were ill-guarded. Under cover of the night, Wolfe
moved his troops up the river till they came to the foot of the Heights.
They climbed them in the dark. The French sentries fled, and
when morning rose the British army stood on the Heights. Montcalm
at once gave
battle, to save
the city. The
action was long
and fierce. On
the French side
1,500 men were
killed. Of the
British there
fell 640, but
the greatest
loss which the
British army
sustained was
that of its
General.
Twice wound-
ed as he was
encouraging his
troops, Wolfe
was struck the
third time by
a bullet which
pierced his
chest, and this
time the wound
proved mortal.
He was borne
from the field, and, as he lay dying, one of his officers spoke to him.
" See how they run ! " said he. " Who run ? " asked Wolfe. " The
enemy,'" replied the officer ; " they give way in all directions.''1 " God he
praised/" cried the General ; " then I die happy! "and in the moment
of victory he passed away. The French, too, had lost their leader,
Montcalm, who was wounded in the battle and died the next day.
But though Wolfe was dead, the victory which his skill and courage
had secured was complete. The city of Quebec surrendered ; and from
MAJOR-GENERAL WOLFE.
(From a painting by F. Turin.)
654 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
that day the fortunes of the British in North America steadily
improved, while those of France, deprived of the services of the
great Montcalm, and harassed by the perpetual attacks of the British
fleets, declined.
A Wonderful Year. 1759-John Wesley.
"My Lord, I am sure I can save this country, and nobody else can.'1 —
William Pitt to the Duke of Devonshire.
Nor were Plassey and Quebec the only victories which now came to
cheer the people of Britain, who had been too long accustomed to mis-
management and defeat. The year 1759 must be for ever memorable
in the history of our country, for it was in that year that British arms
were triumphant in every quarter of the world, and British power
established in many a place in which it has remained unshaken through
all the misfortunes of later years.
Early in the year came the news of the taking of Gorge,1 on the
West Coast of Africa. A little later came the news of the capture of
the French island of Guadeloupe, in the West Indies. Both Gore"e and
Guadeloupe have since been handed back to France 2 ; but Quebec,
which fell to the British arms on the i3th of September, is to this day
a British city.
In the same year (1759) came the news of British naval victories at
Lagos Bay and at Quiberon Bay, where Admiral Hawke fought and
destroyed the French fleet in a full gale of wind. In Germany, a
British and Hanoverian force defeated the French at Minden, on the
River Weser ; while early in 1760, in India, Colonel Coote, afterwards
General Sir Eyre Coote, gained an important victory over the French
at Wandewash, between Madras and Pondicherry. Meanwhile the allies
of Britain, supported by large sums of money voted by Parliament
under Pitt's advice, held their own, or defeated their enemies on the
Continent. Frederick the Great, in a wonderful campaign in which he
fought in succession the armies of Austria and Russia, saved not only
his kingdom of Prussia from destruction, but came out of the war feared
and respected by all Europe. Well might Horace Walpole, the witty
son of the great Minister, declare that it was necessary to ask every
morning what new victory had been won for fear of missing a single
triumph.
Pitt, whom all men looked upon as the man who had made these
1 Taken in 1758. * In 1814.
JOHN WESLEY.
655
successes possible, was all-powerful ; and the reign of King George
ended in the midst of the glories and the successes of the country.
In October, 1760, the king died. He could do but little to serve
the country, but he had done one thing for which he deserves its
gratitude. He had supported his great Minister, William Pitt. We
shall read in the next chapter how soon a change came over the
scene, and how in a few years the country fell from the height to which
Pitt had raised it, to
a condition in which
it seemed as if it must
be ruined for ever
by the misfortunes
which overtook it.
WESLEY.
Before we close
the story of the reign
of George 1 1., we must
pass for a moment
from the accounts of
war, and from the
record of the exploits
of great statesmen
and successful
generals, to say a
word or two about the
life and work of a very
remarkable man, who
laboured in the cause
of peace and religion.
The name of John
Wesley (b. 1703, d.
1791) is even better
known at the present
day than it was in the days of George II.; for the " Wesleyans,"
who still follow the doctrines which he taught, may now be num-
bered by thousands, and the Wesleyan chapel is familiar in every
part of England. Wesley was born at Epworth in Lincolnshire;
he was educated at Charterhouse School, and at Christ Church,
Oxford. He became a clergyman of the Church of England, and was
soon known among his friends for his earnestness and goodners.
At that time the Church of England, to which Wesley belonged, had,
WILLIAM PITT, LORD CHATHAM.
(From a painting by X, Brompton.)
656 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
in his opinion, become inactive in many places, and its clergy, he
thought, did not give enough attention to preaching, nor did they set
a proper example to their congregations.
He joined a society of young men at Oxford known as " Methodists,''
and with his friend, George Whitefield, devoted himself to teaching and
preaching, first in England and then in America. He returned from
America in 1738, and again joined Whitefield, who, with his Methodist
friends, had been preaching in the west of England. The teaching of
these two earnest and able men drew together enormous congregations,
and the number of the Methodists, of whom Wesley now became the
leader, rapidly grew. Whitefield and Wesley socn found that they
could not agree, and to the latter was left the work of drawing up the
rules which have since guided the " Wesleyan Methodists," the name
by which his followers came to be known.
W'esley remained all his life a clergyman of the Church of England ;
but, after his death, the Wesleyans separated from the Church, and
have ever since remained distinct. There can be no doubt that, by
the earnestness of his preaching and by the beauty of his own life, John
Wesley did great good not only to his own followers but also to the
Church of England, whose clergy learnt from him lessons which they in.
turn practised. Many of them, though they did not join the Wesleyan
Methodists, were taught by the example of John W7esley how great was
the power of earnest preaching, and how much need there was for
them to be active and earnest in doing the sacred work for which they
were appointed.
When speaking of John Wesley, we must not forget to speak also
of his brother, Charles Wesley (b. 1708, d. 1788), whose name will be
long remembered as the writer of many hymns which are still sung in
our churches and chapels, and the words of which are familiar to
thousands of Englishmen throughout the world. Among the best
known of these hymns are those beginning: —
" Jesus, lover of my soul."
and
" Oh, for a heart to praise my God,
A "heart from sin set free. "
657
CHAPTER LXVII.
GEORGE III.
1760-1820.
The Loss of the American Colonies.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF GEORGE III
George III., King of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, Elector
of Hanover, son of Frederick, Prince
of Wales, and Augusta of Saxe-
Colurg Gotha, and grandson ot
George II., b. 1738, became king
1760, d. 1820.
Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-
Strelitz, wife of Geo ge III., m. 1761,
d. 1818.
George, afterwards king, b. 1762.
Frederick, Duke of York, b. 1763, d. 1827.
William, Duke of Clarence, afterwards king..
b. 1765.
Edward, Duke of Kent, m. Victoria of Saxe-
Coburg, b. 1767, d. 1820.
Victoria, daughter of the Duke and Duchess
of Kent, afterwards queen, b. 24th
May, 1819.
Ernest, King of Hanover, fifth son of
George III., b. 1771.
And two other sons and six daughters.
James Edward Stuart, The "Old Preten-
der," d. 1765.
Charles Edward Stuart, The "Young
Pretender," d. 1788.
Eenry Benedict, Cardinal of York, brother
of the "Young Pretender," last male
of the Stuart line, d. 1807.
LOUIS XV., King of France, d. 1774.
LOUIS XVI., King of France, beheaded 1793.
LOUIS XVII., son of Louis XVI., was a
prisoner during the time he should
have reigned, d. 1795.
The First Republic, 1792-1804.
Napoleon Buonaparte, First Consul, after-
wards Emperor of the French, b. 1769,
d. in exile 1821.
LOUiS XVIII., King of France, brother of
Louis XVI., became king 1814.
Maria Theresa, empress.
Francis I., emperor, consort of Maria
Theresa, d. 1765.
Joseph II., emperor, d. 1790.
Leopold II., emperor, d. 1792.
Francis II., emperor, became Emperor of
Austria only in 1804.
Frederick II., " The Great," King of Prussia,
H. 1786.
Frederick William II., King of Prussia,
d. 1797.
Frederick William III., King of Prussia.
Charles III., King of Spain, d. 1788.
Charles IV., King of Spain, abdicated 1808.
Ferdinand VII., King of Spain, 1808.
Joseph Buonaparte, brother of Napoleon,
King of Spain from 1808 to 1813.
Elizabeth, Empress of Russia, d. 1762.
Peter III., Emperor of Russia, d. 1762.
Catherine II., wife of Peter III., Empress
of Russia, d. 1796.
Paul, Emperor of Russia, murdered 1801.
Alexander I., Emperor of Russia.
Presidents of the United States :—
George Washington, from 1789 to 1793 ;
d. 1799.
John Aaams, from 1797 to 1801.
Thomas Jefferson, from 1801 to 1809.
James Madison, from 1809 to 1817.
James Monroe, from 1817 to 1825.
Principal Ministers of George III. :—
William Pitt, Earl of Chatham,
d. 1778.
Rt. Hon. Charles Townshend, d. 1767.
Tnomas Pelham.Duke of Newcastle,
d. 1768.
William Pitt, d. 1806.
Charles James Fox, d. 1806.
Frederick, Lord North, d. 1792.
George Canning, b. 1770.
John Stuart, Earl of Bute, d. 1792.
Warren Hastings, d. 1818.
Divines :—
John Wesley, d. 1791.
Charles Wesley, d. 1788.
George Whitefleld, d. 1770.
Groat Writers :—
Samuel Johnson, b. 1709, d. 1784.
David Hume, b. 1711, d. 1776.
Laurence Sterne, b. 1713, d. 1768.
William Shenstone. b. 1714, d. 1763.
Thomas Gray, b. 1716, d. 1771.
Horace Walpole, b. 1717, d. 1797.
Tobias Smollett, b. 1721, d. 1771.
Edmund Burke, b. 1729, d. 1797.
Oliver Goldsmith, b. 1728, d. 1774.
William Cowper, b. 1731, d. 1800.
James Beattie, b. 1735, d. 1803.
James Boswell, b. 1740, d. 1795.
Richard B. Sheridan, b. 1751, d. 1816
658
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
George Crabbe, b. 17 r4.
Robert Burns, b. 1759, d. 1796.
William Wordsworth, b. i77o.
Sir Walter Scott, b. i77i.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, b. 1772.
Robert Sou they, b. i774.
Jane Austen, b. 1775, d. 1817.
Thomas Campbell, b. 1777.
Thomas Moore, b, 1779.
Bishop Reginald Heber, b. 1783.
George Gordon, Lord Byron, b. 1788.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, b. 1792.
John Keats, b. 1795, d. 1821.
Thomas Hood, b. 1798.
Great French Writers:—
Fran9ois Arouet, known as Voltaire,
b. 1694, d. 1728.
Jean Jacques Rousseau, b. 1 7 1 2, d . 1 778.
German Writers :—
Johann Schiller, b. 1759, d. 1805.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, b. 1749.
Great Painters:—
William Hogarth (English), b. 1697,
d. 1764.
Sir Joshua Reynolds (English), b.
1723, d. 1792.
Thomas Gainsborough (English), b.
1727, d. 1788.
George Romney (English), b. 1734, d.
1802.
John Opie (English), b. 1761, d. 1807.
John S. Copley (English), b. i737, d.
1815.
Sir Henry Raeburn (English), b. 1756.
Jphn Flaxman (sculptor), b. 1755.
Sir William Hersehel (astronomer), b.
1738, d. 1822.
John Smeaton (engineer), b. 172 \, d. 1792.
James Watt (inventor of the s earn engine),
b. 1736, d. 1819.
Sir Humphry Davy, b. 1778.
Robert Fulton, d. 1815:
Explorers :—
Mungo Park, b. i77i, d. 1805.
Sir John Franklin, b. 1786.
Rear-Admiral Sir William Parry,
b. 1790.
Captain James Cook, b. 1728, d. 1779.
Sir John Moore, d. 1809.
Robert, Lord Clive, d, i774.
General Sir Eyre Coote, d. 1783.
Admiral Lord George Anson, d. 176?.
Sir Ralph Abercromby, d. 1801.
Viscount Horatio Nelson, d. 1805.
Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington,
b. 1769.
William, Lord Howe, d. 1814.
Baron George Rodney, d. 1792.
Warren Hastings, d. 1818.
Great Musicians:—
J. C. W. A. Mozart (German), d. 1791.
Josef Haydn (Austrian), 1809.
L. Beethoven (German).
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF GEORGE III.
1760. George III. becomes king.
1761. Marriage of George III. to Charlotte
Sophia.
Bute Prime Minister.
1762. War declared against Spain. Capture
of Manilla.
1763. End of the Seven Years' War.
Resignation of Lord Bute.
1764. Battle of Buxar, in India.
Watt completes his steam engine.
1765. The American Stamp Act passed.
1767. Illness of Lord Chatham.
1768. Chatham resigns office.
American colonists resist the payment
of taxes.
1769. Birth of Arthur Wellesley, afterwards
Duke of Wellington, and of Napoleon
Buonaparte.
Arkwright invents the spinning frame.
1772. Disturbances in the American Colonies.
1774. Boston Port Act passed.
Rebellion in the American Colonies.
Act for the better government of Canada
passed.
1775. Battle of Bunker's Hill.
1776. Declaration of Independence issued.
1777. Surrender of Cornwallis at Saratoga.
French officers join the colonists.
1778. Death of Lord Chatham.
The French openly join the colonists.
1779. Death of Captain Cook.
Siege of Gibraltar begun.
Volunteers organised in Ireland.
1780. Relief of Gibraltar ; victory of Rodney
in the West Indies.
Lord George Gordon Riots.
War with Holland.
1781. Surrender of Yorktown, and end of the
American War.
1782. Rodney defeats the French fleet under
De Grasse off Martinique.
Siege of Gibraltar raised.
1783. Fox and North form a Coalition
Ministry.
Pitt Prime Minister.
1786. Impeachment of Warren Hastings.
1788. Madness of the king.
1789. Commencement of the French Revolu<
tion.
1792. War between France, Austria, and
Prussia.
1793. War declared against France.
Execution of Louis XVI. of France.
Irish Roman Catholic Relief Act passed.
1795. Disturbances in Ireland.
Cape of Good Hope taken.
Buonaparte first becomes famous.
1796. British Guiana taken.
1797. Naval victory off Cape St. Vincent.
Mutiny of the fleet.
Victory of Camperdown.
1798. Rebellion in Ireland put down.
Battle of the Nile.
1799. Defence of Acre by Sir Sidney Smith.v
Buonaparte returns to Europe, and is
made First Consul.
" GEORGE, GEORGE, BE KING!"
659
1800. The Act of Union with Ireland
passed.
Malta occupied by the British.
Victory ot Buonaparte over the Austri-
ans at Marengo.
Battle of Hohenlinden.
1801. First meeting of the Parliament of the
United Kingdom.
George III. gives up his title of " King
of France."
Battle of Copenhagen.
First steamboat on the Thames.
1802. Peace of Amiens.
1803. Renewed war with France.
Addington Minister.
Battle of Assaye.
First use of coal-gas in Lor don for
lighting.
7804. Pitt becomes Prime Minister.
Buonaparte proclaimed emperor.
1805. Sir Robert Calder's naval victory over
the French.
Threatened invasion of England by the
French.
Battle of Trafalgar, and death of Nelson.
Defeat of the Austrians at Ulm and
Austerlitz.
1806. Recapture of the Cape of Good Hope.
Death of Pitt.
Fox joins the new Ministry.
Death of Fox.
Battle of Jena.
Berlin Decree.
1807. Bombardment of Copenhagen.
Milan Decree.
180?.
J8o9.
1810.
1811.
1812.
1813.
1814.
1815.
18,9.
1820.
Orders in-Council issued in reply to the
Milan Decree.
Treaty of Tilsit. Agreement between
France and Russia.
Sir Arthur Wellesley lands in the
Peninsula.
Joseph Buonaparte made King of Spain.
Battle of Corunna.
Walcheren Expedition.
Success of Sir Arthur Wellesley in the
Peninsula.
Buonaparte occupies Vienna ; wins tht
battles of Essling.Aspsrn.andWagram.
Enforcement of the Continental System
against England causes great loss ;
the system finally breaks down, owing
to the withdrawal of Russia.
Further successes in the Peninsula.
War with the United States.
French expedition to Russia.
French defeated at Leipsic.
Battle of Vittoria.
Wclli gton enters Frpnce.
Viscount Wellington made Duke of
Wellington.
Abdication of Buonaparte.
Escape of Buonaparte. Battle of
Waterloo.
Restoration of the Bourbons.
Birth of the Princess Alexandrina
Victoria, afterwards Queen Victoria.
Riot at Manchester, known as the
" Peterloo Massacre."
First steamboat crosses the Atlantic.
Death of George III.
George, George, be King-."
"Evil is wrought
By want of thought
As well as want of heart." — Hood.
GEORGE IIU10S> was the son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, of whose
death we have read, and was the grandson of George II. He was only
twenty-two years old when he became king. For nearly sixty years
he occupied the throne. It cannot be said that he reigned during the
whole of that time, for many years of his life were clouded by the
madness which overtook him in his later years.
In the first year of his reign he was married to Charlotte,004' sister of
the Duke of Mecklenburg- Strelitz, in Germany. She proved a good
wife to him throughout her life. The young king was very popular
when he came to the throne. He was pleasant-looking, and, moreover,
he was a thorough Englishman in his tastes. George I. and George II.
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
had been looked upon as German, not as English, kings. Everyone
now rejoiced to see an English king speaking English, and enjoying all
the pleasures of an English country gentleman.
But the reign which began with such happy promise turned out to
be a time of trial and trouble. And although the kings of England
were now much less powerful in many ways than their predecessors
had been, there
can be no doubt
that King 'George
himself had a
very great deal to
do with many of
the events that
took place during
his reign. He was
not a wise man,
and he was a very
obstinate man,
but he was very
well meaning.
His mother, the
Princess Augusta,
had always given
him a great idea
of what his posi-
tion would be if
he became king.
" George, George,
be king," she
would say to him ;
and when he came
to the throne it
was to be a real
king that George had made up his mind, and as although he was
well-meaning he was not wise, the things that he did or tried to do
with the best intentions turned out to be very unwise things and very
bad for the country. Moreover, because he was very obstinate, and
never forgot his mother's advice "to be king" whatever it cost, it
often happened that, despite his good intentions, he did the greatest
possible harm to the country which he really loved. In spite of all
his faults, however, George III. won the affection of his people, and
kept it during his life. The people knew him to be sincere, and they
GEORGE III. IN' HIS YOUTH.
"GEORGE, GEORGE, BE KING!" 66 r
liked his homely ways and his frank manner. They readily forgave
his mistakes, which they were always more ready to put down to the
king's Ministers than to the king himself.
In 1761 Pitt was still Minister. The party which opposed him
wished to make peace with France. Pitt was against making peace,
for he knew that France had really made an alliance with Spain against
England, and that the peace would not last. As he could not prevent
the government from making terms with the French, he resigned his
office, and George Grenville took his place in the House of Commons.
The king was glad of the change, for he could not make Pitt do just
what he pleased, and he liked Ministers who would obey his orders.
He soon found a man to suit him. This was Lord Bute, a Scotsman,
whom the king had made a Minister to please his mother, the Princess
Augusta.
Bute was an incapable man, and was detested by the people. He
soon showed that he was unfit to govern the country in difficult times.
Although he had been put into office to make peace, he could not
prevent the outbreak of war with Spain which Pitt had foreseen, and
our fleets under Admiral Eodney and other commanders captured many
of the Spanish possessions in the West and East Indies. In 1763,
however, peace was at last made, and thus ended the terrible " Seven
Years' War"
England kept the whole of Canada, and the islands of Tobago,
Dominica, St. Vincent, and Granada ; all these remain parts of the British
Empire. Martinique and St. Lucia were given back to France. The
former is still French, the latter has since become British.
The same year as the peace, Bute gave up office, hated by all, and
Pitt again became a member of the government. But from that time,
and until his death, Pitt never really had the full support of the king,
who did not like a strong Minister who would have his own way. So
much did George dislike an independent Minister that whenever he
could do so he chose men from the party which was known as " The
King's Friends," l and, indeed, from any party which would help to
make him free of the great Whig Ministers, such as the Duke of
Devonshire, and Grenville, and of their ally Pitt. The time had now
come when the danger of having weak Ministers was great ; and we
shall see in the next few pages what a misfortune overtook the
country.
1 "The King's Friends" were those who, vithout belonging to either of the great parties,
supported the king against both, in the hope of strengthening the power of the Crown As they
acted secretly and not openly in Parliament, they became unpopular with the English people.
662 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The American Colonies and the Stamp Act.
"My hold of the Colonies is in the close affection which grows from
common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges and protection.
These are ties which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron.
Let the Colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights associated with
your government ; they will cling and grapple to you, and no force under
heaven will be of power to tear them from their allegiance. But let it be
once understood that your government may be one thing, and their privileges
another, that these two things may exist without any mutual relation — the
cement is gone, the cohesion is loosened, and everything hastens to decay
and dissolution."— Burke : Speech on Conciliation with America.
In reading the story of the reign of George 1 1 . we learnt how the greater
part of North America had fallen into the hands of the British, and how
the French had been defeated. We have now to learn how it was that
the great struggle arose which ended in British North America being
divided into two parts, of which the northern, Canada, remained part of
the British Empire, while the southern became a separate country under
the name of " The United States of America." The story is too long to
be told very fully here. It is full of interest and excitement to those
who read it carefully. Many, great men took part in the struggle on
both sides, but the most famous of all those who took part was George
Washington, whom we have already seen fighting against the French as
an officer in the service of King George II.
At this time the British in America formed thirteen different Colonies,
or " States," in that part of the country which lies to the south of the
River St. Lawrence. On the north of the St. Lawrence was Canada,
with a small population, partly British and partly French. The
principal towns of the Thirteen States were New York, Boston, and
Philadelphia, all of which lie upon the Atlantic Ocean. Quebec, and
Montreal, on the St. Lawrence, were the principal towns of Canada.
Up to this time the British Parliament had always claimed the right to
make laws for the Colonies ; and though the colonial Assemblies, or
Parliaments, had power to make laws also, they still remained under
the power of the British Parliament sitting many thousands of miles
away in London.
Parliament, however, did not interfere very often ; and, while the
colonists looked to Great Britain for protection against the French,
there was little complaint. Now, however, that the French had been
THE AMERICAN COLONIES AND THE STAMP ACT. 663
beaten, the colonists began to feel themselves strong and independent.
It is probable, however, that all difficulty between England and the
Colonies might have been avoided, or at any rate put off for a long
time, if the Ministry at home had been wise and prudent. Unluckily,
bad counsels prevailed and things were done which led to quarrels
with the Colonies, and finally ended in the outbreak of war.
QUEBEC, FROM THE ST. LAWRENCE.
It was in the year 1765 that the first step was taken which gave
offence to the colonists. Pitt, disgusted with the opposition of the
king, had given up office. In that year George Grenville, the Prime
Minister, brought in and passed through Parliament an Act known as
the " Stamp Act." By this Act the American colonists were compelled
to write all their agreements and legal papers upon stamped paper sent
out from England, for which they had to pay. The object of the Act
was to get money for the public service from the American Colonies.
664
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
It was a good object, for it was quite right that the colonists should
pay their share towards defending the Empire. But often a right
thing may be done in a wrong way, and this was such a case. The
tax — for such it was — was placed upon the colonists without their
consent, and thus one of the chief liberties of British subjects was
interfered with. So far back as the time of Magna Charta it had been
declared that no
taxes should be
raised without the
consent of the Com-
mon Council of the
Realm, or Parlia-
ment. Parliament,
it was true, had
given its consent
to the Stamp Act,
but the American
colonists had no
members in Parlia-
ment, and thus they
were really taxed
without their consent.
There was great
indignation in
America, and many
people determined
not to carry on any
trade with England
until the Act had
been repealed.
This time, how-
ever, the danger
EDMUND BURKE. vvas got over owing
to the wisdom of
Pitt, and of Edmund Burke, the famous political writer, who now first
began to take part in the debates in Parliament. Both Pitt and Burke
condemned the Stamp Act, and Pitt declared that the colonists were
right in resisting it.
The Act was repealed (1766), and in the same year Pitt himself
became Prime Minister, and was summoned to the House of Lords as
Earl of Chatham. Unluckily, however, the power of Pitt was not so
great as it had hitherto been. In the first place, many who had
WASHINGTON, AND THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 665
always looked to him as a man of independence distrusted him now
that he had left the House of Commons and become Prime Minister ;
in the second place, illness kept Pitt a great deal away from Parlia-
ment, and in the meanwhile his enemies grew stronger.
Washington, and the Declaration of Independence.
"First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his fellow-
citizens." — From " Resolutions on the Death of General Washington."
Matters did not mend in America. During Lord Chatham's illness
Parliament had passed an Act taxing tea, glass, and paper imported
into the American Colonies. The colonists objected to the new duties
as strongly as they had objected to the Stamp Act. Unluckily, a
THROWING THE TEA OVERBOARD IN BOSTON HARBOUR.
party grew up round the king who were determined to force the
colonists to submit at any cost. The leader of this party was Lord
North. When the news of the new duties reached America the gieatest
indignation was aroused ; and when, in 1770, Lord North became
666
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Prime Minister, the feeling of the colonists could no longer be re-
strained. There were riots in Boston, and the troops were forced to
fire upon the mob. The Southern State of Virginia, from which George
Washington came, now joined the Northern States against the British
government.
This was indeed a dark time for England. On all sides the clouds
seemed to be gathering round her. News came from Boston (1773) that
some of the citi-
zens, disguised
as Red Indians,
had boarded the
tea-laden ships
and thrown the
tea into the
water. A Con-
gress was called
at Philadelphia,
which began to
raise militia and
to pass laws
directed against
the British gov-
ernment. In vain
did Lord Chat-
ham try to avert
the danger, arid
to persuade the
king and Parlia-
ment to avoid a
struggle by mak-
ing wise conces-
sions in time. Neither the king nor Lord North would listen to him.
In 1775 came the first outbreak of war; and in a fight between
British troops and some of the Colonial militia at Lexington, in the State
of Massachusetts, the British were defeated. But while the Thirteen
States were driven into rebellion by the unwise action of the British
government, the loyalty of the Canadians was secured by wise conces-
sions, and the support of the gallant people of Canada was retained
for the Old Country through all the troubled times which followed.
The rebellious colonists soon formed an army, which was placed
under the command of Washington. In a battle at Bunker's Hill, near
Boston, the British troops were victorious, though only after a great
LORD NORTH.
THE SURRENDER OF YORKTOIVX. 667
loss of life. It was here that, after the line regiments had been forced
to give way under the heavy fire, the word was passed : " Make way
for the Marines ! " and the Royal Marines, passing through the scat-
tered ranks of the soldiers, carried the day.
From this time forward fighting went on in every part of the
country. The colonists invaded Canada, but were defeated and
driven back. Meanwhile both armies were largely reinforced. It was
on the 4th of July, 1776, that Congress, as the Colonial Parliament was
called, passed the famous Declaration of Independence, in which they
declared that the Colonies were henceforward to be an independent
nation, to be known for ever as The United States of America.
For some time the fighting continued with varying success, but, on
the whole, with some advantage to the British, despite the fact that
they were as a rule greatly outnumbered. It was not till later (1777)
that the first great calamity befell our arms. On the i7th of October
in that year General Burgoyne was compelled to surrender to a vastly
superior force the whole of his army, numbering 3,500 men, at Saratoga,
a town in the State of New York.
At home opinion was now much divided as to whether the war
should be continued or on what terms peace should be made. Chatham
was still in favour of conciliation, and urged Parliament to give to the
Americans everything they claimed except their independence. But
the king was obstinate ; and though at last Lord North agreed to
bring in a so-called Conciliation Bill, events had taken place in the
meanwhile which put an end to all hopes of an agreement.
The Surrender of Yorktown, and the End of the War.
" They have fallen
Each in his field of glory : one in arms
And one in counsel— Wolfe upon the lap
Of smiling Victory that moment won,
And Chatham, heart sick of his country's shame."
Cpwper: "The Task."
It seemed indeed as if every calamity which could overtake a nation
had befallen our land at the same time. In May, 1778, Lord Chatham
died. His last speech in the House of Lords was in favour of peace
and conciliation. His strength failed him as he was speaking, and he
had to be carried from the Chamber.
668
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
This was but the beginning of calamities. France, which had long
been looking out for an opportunity of revenging herself upon England,
now forced on war, and French troops and French ships were sent to
join the army of General Washington. In Ireland discontent and dis-
affection led to threats of rebellion, and French aid was promised to
Irish rebels. In England disturbances broke out in the heart of London,
and the famous and terrible riots known as the " Lord George Gordon
Riots " took place (1780). A mob headed by young Lord George Gordon
THE
UNITED STATES
I N 1783.
Jvelar, ffamci tl,u$:-. ^.
/lontiJary of the thirteen original
UouttJary of L'nited Sl
marched through the streets, burning and plundering. The leaders
declared that their object was to protect the Protestant religion, and to
put down Roman Catholic plots. But the movement soon became a
mere riot, and peace was only restored after the soldiers had fired on
the people in the streets and scores of houses had been burned to the
ground or plundered.
To our long list of enemies Spain was now added, and in the same
year Holland also declared war against us. There was little hope now
of the colonists listening to any terms of peace. It seemed as if
THE SURRENDER OF YORKTOWN.
669
Britain could never hold her own against so many enemies. Our fleet,
too, was not large enough to protect the country and to keep the
command of the sea. The bravery and skill of Lord Rodney, indeed,
NORTH AMERICA
Banmlariei of Unittd Statei i
1783 thoum thu
Boundariet of United State* at
pretent time thown thus: maamm
.Massachusetts 8. New Jersey
.New Hampshire 0 . !><•
.Rhode Island 10. Maryland
.Connecticut 1 1. Virginia
-N W. Territory 12. North faroli
.New York 13. South Caroli
.Pennsylvania 14. Georgia
SOUTH
M E R I C A
secured victory over the French in more than one quarter of the world ;
but on the coast of America the want of ships was terribly felt.
Gradually the fortunes of war turned against the British troops. The
French fleets transported and protected the American troops, while
670 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
French regular soldiers were landed and fought side by side with the
troops under Washington. On the igth of October, 1781, the mis-
fortune of Saratoga was repeated, and General Cornwallis, with an army
of 4,000 men, surrounded and cut off from support, was forced to
surrender to a mixed body of 18,000 French and American troops at
Yorktown, in Virginia.
The war was now practically at an end, and it was clear that the
British Government could no longer refuse to recognise the Inde-
pendence of the United States. George Washington, who was justly
looked upon by the Americans as the hero of the war, was made first
President of the United States, and proved himself to be as wise and
prudent in peace as he had shown himself to be skilful and courageous
in war.
Thus ended the great struggle between Great Britain and the
American Colonies which resulted in the creation of the great Republic
of the United States. Whether, if wiser counsels had been listened
to at home — whether, if the opinion of Chatham and Burke had
been listened to rather than that of George III. and Lord North,
the separation might never have taken place, it is impossible now to
say ; but that the war which led to the separation was a terrible mis-
fortune no one can doubt, for it created ill-feeling between those who
not only ought to have been good friends, but who would have been
good friends if mistakes on both sides had not stirred up strife.
"The Darkest Hour Comes Before the Dawn."- "United
Empire Loyalists."
"Greater no man's trust
Than his who deeps the fortress for the king. "
George Eliot : " The Spanish Gypsy."
Face to face with enemies on every side — at war with France, Spain,
Holland, Sweden, and The United States — the darkest hour of England's
history seemed to have come. But the darkest hour is often that which
comes before the dawn, and, while Englishmen were still grieving over
the loss of the Colonies, and fearing still further misfortunes, cheering
news reached them from more than one quarter of the world. In 1782,
the year following Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown, Admiral Eodney
engaged a French fleet of equal numbers near the island of Martinique,
and totally defeated it, taking or destroying no less than eight ships.
11 THE UNITED EMPIRE LOYALISTS? 671
The news of yet another triumph came to cheer the nation in the
same year. For three long years the great fortress of Gibraltar had
been besieged by the French and Spaniards. For three years the
garrison, under its brave commander, General Elliot, had been exposed
to perpetual attacks by land and sea. Tens of thousands of shot and
shell had been fired into the place ; and famine had tried the garrison
even more than the attacks of the enemy.
In September, 1782, a last great attack was made by the enemy with
huge floating batteries, and over 400 guns. Like all previous attacks,
it was defeated. The great batteries were set on fire by red-hot shot
fired from the British guns — they burnt to the water's edge and sank.
The victory was complete ; the siege was raised ; and Gibraltar was
safe.
The French now began to understand that, though England had
been hard pressed, she was far from dead yet ; and France was at last
forced to consent to terms of peace which but a year or two before she
had scorned and -refused. Peace was made in January, 1783 ; the
independence of the United States was recognised. The French got
little. Senegal and Goree, on the west coast of Africa, were given to
them, and they were allowed to keep the two little islands of St. Pierre
and Miquelon, close to Newfoundland, but were forbidden to make
fortifications or to keep soldiers there.1
In America a number of the loyalists who had stood by England
throughout the war refused to remain in their homes under the new
government, or to exchange the " Union Jack " for the " Stars and
Stripes." They crossed the frontier into Canada, and there settled.
Their loyalty and devotion recall the beautiful words in which is told
the story of Ruth —
" And Ruth said, ' Intreat me not to leave thee,
Or to return from following after thee ;
For whither thou goest, I will go ; and where thou lodgest,
I will lodge ; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.' " '2
They were known as " The United Empire Loyalists," and their
memory should always be held in honour and esteem by every true
Briton. Their descendants in the Dominion are to this day justly
proud of their descent from the "United Empire Loyalists " of 1776.
1 These islands still belong to France ; and their occupation by the French is a source of
great annoyance and inconvenience to the people of Newfoundland.
2 Ruth i. 16.
672 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
CHAPTER LXVIII.
THE ACT OF UNION WITH IRELAND.
Pitt and Fox.
"At this moment, there appeared before the country a young University
student, rich with lofty eloquence, and heir to an immortal name; un-
tainted in character, spotless in life ; who showed the very first day
that he met Parliament as Minister a supreme disdain for the material
prizes of political life."— Lord Rosebery : "Life of Pitt."
IT was natural that the failure of Lord North's policy should put an
end to his government. He was succeeded in 1782 by Lord Eockingham,
a Whig ; and in the same year Rockingham's place was taken by Lord
Shelburne. The new Ministry lasted but a short time, but it must be
remembered because it contained a very famous person. This was
William Pitt, the son of the great Lord Chatham, who now, at the age
of only twenty-three, became a Cabinet Minister and Chancellor of the
Exchequer.
This young man was destined to become as famous, though less
fortunate, than his father.
Frequent changes of Ministries took place, but two men soon took
the lead before all others in the House of Commons. One was Charles
James Fox, the great leader of the Whig Party ; the other was William
Pitt, who speedily became recognised as the chief of the Tory Party
and the only man able to oppose Fox.
In 1783 Fox became the leader of the government, under the Duke
of Portland, and so great was his power in the House of Commons that
it seemed as if nothing could shake it. The king was no lover of Fox ;
but the Whigs, though they had not the support of the king, had the
support of his son, the Prince of Wales. Pitt took the side of the king;
and it soon became clear that the real feeling of the country was on
the side of the king and Pitt, rather than on that of Fox and the Whigs.
But while Fox had so many supporters in the House of Commons, he
remained all-powerful.
It was not long, however, before he fell. He brought in a Bill
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 673
called the " India Bill," which was passed by the House of Commons.
The king refused to accept the Bill, and persuaded the House of Lords
to throw it out. He dismissed Fox, and made Pitt Prime Minister.
Then, indeed, there arose a strange state of things. A Prime
Minister of twenty-four found himself in the House of Commons with
a majority of almost two to one against him. Every measure Pitt pro-
posed was defeated, and Fox used all his eloquence to make him and
his Government ridiculous. But Pitt would not give way; he knew
that the country was with him. Parliament was dissolved (1784), and
160 of Fox's supporters were turned out at the election. Pitt came
back to office as Prime Minister with a large majority, and for seven-
teen years retained that high office.
Great Britain and Ireland.
"I sat by its cradle, I followed its hearse."
Henry Grattan : Speech on Grat tan's Parliament.
We now come to two very important events, one of which chiefly
concerned our country alone, while the other affected the whole of
Europe, and, indeed, the whole of the world. The first event was the
Parliamentary union between Great Britain and Ireland. The second was
the great Revolution in France, which began in the year 1789. In
guiding the country through all the dangers and difficulties which
surrounded it in these stormy times, William Pitt took the foremost
place.
In order to understand what happened in Ireland we must go back
a little in our history, and recall what had taken place in that part of
the Three Kingdoms. It must be remembered that, although after the
Reformation the whole of England had become Protestant, by far the
larger part of the people of Ireland had remained members of the
Roman Catholic Church. There were, it is true, a considerable number
of Protestants in Ireland, chiefly in the north, but the Roman Catholics
formed the great majority.
Partly owing to their different form of religion, partly owing to
English misgovernment, and partly to other causes, many of the Irish
had always been ready to take part in any attack upon the English
power in Ireland. Ever since the days of Elizabeth, and indeed from
a much earlier date, the country had been disturbed by almost endless
w
674
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
civil wars, which had caused terrible suffering and had been conducted
with great cruelty on both sides.
On several occasions foreign troops had landed in Ireland, and had
found support in that country against England. More than once
English armies had been despatched to Ireland, and after fierce
fighting had put down rebellion. We have seen how in Cromwell's
time such an event took place, and how once more, in the reign of
William III., the
Irish, with their
French allies, had
fought for James II.
and the Roman
Catholic cause
against William III.
After the battle
of the Boyne and
the flight of James,
the Protestant cause
had been trium-
phant, and the
Roman Catholics
who had so lately
been in arms against
the King were treated
with great severity,
and were kept down
by special laws.
It was impos-
sible that all this
trouble should pass
over the land and
not leave behind it
bitter memories and
divisions which were
hard to heal. Much
of the land of Ireland had been seized from time to time by either
party in the hour of its triumph. The Protestants had been the last
to win a victory, and had used it to turn out from their land those
whom they considered rebels and enemies. Here was another cause
of bitterness and strife.
Lastly, there was a political reason for Irish troubles which must
not be forgotten. In the story of the reign of Henry VII. (p. 422) we
WILLIAM PITT.
(After the portrait by Hoppner.)
GRATTAN'S PARLIAMENT. 675
read an account of an Act of Parliament passed in the year 1494, and
called " Poynings' Act " after Sir Edward Poynings, who was Governor
of Ireland at the time. By this Act it was declared that whatever laws
the Irish Parliament passed might be "disallowed" by the sovereign;
and that if the sovereign refused consent, or disallowed a law, it
ceased to have any effect, and no one was bound to obey it.
Now, as the king or queen was always advised by English
Ministers, this really meant that, though Ireland had in name a
" free " Parliament, the Irish Parliament could really make no laws
except by the consent of the English Ministers.
For a long time there had been a party in Ireland who were very
anxious to do away with Poynings' Act, and to free the Irish Parlia-
ment from the control of British Ministers ; and in the year 1782, just
after the close of the American war, when Fox was the most important
member of the Government, the demand of this party had been granted
and Poynings' Act repealed.
Grattan's Parliament and the Act of Union.
" The word ' Union ' will not cure the evils of this wretched country ;
it is a necessary preliminary, but a great deal more remains to be done. "
— Lord Fitz william to Pitt. .
The leader of the party who sought for the repeal of Poynings' Act
was Henry Grattan, a very famous and eloquent Irishman, who, how-
ever, was not content to urge his claim by eloquence only. He and
his friends took the opportunity, when Great Britain was engaged in
war all over the world, to enrol thousands of armed Irishmen, who
were called " Volunteers." Whether because he thought it a wise
thing to do, or because he feared the power of the Volunteers, or for
both reasons together, Fox, as we have seen, agreed to give what
Grattan asked for. Thus it was that in 1782 there sat for the first
time in Dublin an independent Irish Parliament, of which Grattan was
the most famous and most eloquent member. From him it has been
called " Grattan's Parliament."
One strange thing must be remembered about this Parliament, and
that is, that all the members of it were Protestants, and that no Roman
Catholics were allowed to sit in it. Unfortunately, although Grattan
had got what he desired, the new Parliament was not successful in giv-
ing to Ireland what she most required — namely, peace and prosperity.
676
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
On the contrary, disturbances soon broke out in every part of the
island. The country, instead of becoming richer, became poorer;
traitorous plots were made by Wolfe Tone and others, the object of
which was to bring over the French and to betray to them the various
strong places in the country.
The Roman Catholics united together to compel the Government
to repeal the laws
which prevented
them from serving
as Grand Jurors, or
Magistrates, from
bearing arms, and
from voting for Mem-
bers of Parliament ;
and in 1793 an Act
of Parliament called
the "Catholic Belief
Act" was passed,
which gave them
what they asked for.
But this was far
from putting an end
to the trouble. In
1795 an open rebel-
lion broke out ; and
though at first both
Roman Catholics
and Protestants were
joined together in
the rebel ranks, the
old sad quarrel be-
tween Protestants
and Roman Catho-
lics soon broke out again and divided Ireland into two camps.
The rebels called in the French to their aid. and General Hoche with
an army actually sailed and reached Bantry Bay, in the county of Cork.
There, happily, his ships were dispersed by a storm, and General Lake,
who was sent with troops from England, succeeded in checking the
rebellion. But it only broke out again more fiercely in the south, and
once more English troops had to be called in under Lord Cornwallis to
restore peace. It was plain that, at a time when Great Britain was at
we.r with half the world, so dangerous a state of things could not be
HENRY GRATTAN.
(After the painting by J. Ramsay?)
THE ACT OF UNION. 677
allowed to go on ; and the danger became very pressing when the news
arrived in August, 1798, that another French general, General Humbert,
had actually landed with 800 men in the county of Mayo. Luckily,
this small force was soon captured, but the peril was very great ; and
at last Pitt made up his mind that the time had come when, the only
safety for the State was to be found in treating Ireland as Scotland
had been treated in 1707, and allowing her to send members to the
Imperial Parliament in London, instead of keeping up a separate and
independent Parliament in Dublin.
Accordingly, in the year 1799, Pitt felt that the time had come for
putting an end to Grattan's Parliament. A Bill was brought into the
Irish House of Commons for the purpose of creating a Parliamentary
Union between Great Britain and Ireland, and a similar Bill was
brought in and passed without difficulty in the British Parliament.
In Ireland, although the Bill was fiercely resisted by some, there
was great difference of opinion as to whether the change ought to be
made or not, and many petitions both for and against the. Bill were
sent up from all parts of the country. One strange difficulty had to be
got over. At that time a seat in Parliament, both in England and
in Ireland, was often looked upon as the property of some nobleman
or rich person, who was said to " own the seat."
So common had the practice of buying and selling seats become that
the rights of the owners had come to be admitted by all. Pitt, there-
fore, found it necessary, in order to get rid of the Parliament in Dublin,
to pay very large sums of money to many of the members who called
themselves owners of their seats. No less than a million and a quarter
pounds were spent in this way. At last, however, the Bill was passed
by a majority of forty-six, on February i8th, 1800. On August 2nd the
Act, having passed the British Parliament, received the royal assent.
It is known as the " Act of Union," and it provided that from that time
forward the Protestant Parliament in Dublin should come to an end,
and that Ireland, like Scotland, should send members straight to the
Imperial Parliament at Westminster.
678 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
CHAPTER LXIX.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
The Beginning- of the Revolution.
"In general, may we not say that the French Revolution lies in the
heart and head of every violent-speaking, of every violent-thinking French
Man ? "— Carlyle.
In giving an account of the Act of Union we have gone a little too
far in advance in our story ; for, long before the year 1800, great events
had taken place both in England and abroad of which no mention has
yet been made. For many years the government of France had been
going fro'm bad to worse. Exhausted by perpetual wars, the French
people were prevented by cruel and unwise laws from making a proper
use of the great natural riches of their country. The government was
in the hands of the king and of a few nobles, who knew little, and
cared less, about the sufferings of the poor.
Meanwhile there had arisen in France a number of very clever
writers and speakers who saw the badness of the government, and the
mischief which it did. These men set to work to preach to the people
of France a new doctrine. They told them that, so far from it being
right that kings and nobles should rule the people, the people ought to
be free to rule themselves. They said it was a shame that a few should
get rich while so many starved ; that all men were really equal ; and
that everyone who set himself up above the people should be cast down
from his high place. They pointed out that the foolish laws which
had been made prevented the people from ever becoming prosperous
or happy.
Many of the things which they said were true and wise ; many were
true but not wisely said ; and some were neither true nor wise. But the
burning words that were spoken and written, whether they were true
~or untrue, wise or unwise, were heard and read very eagerly by the
starving and oppressed people of France, who were glad to be told that
all their misfortunes came from their king and their government. And
when men were in this mood, it was natural enough that they should
think the time had come to get rid of the king and the government
which they believed did them so much harm.
THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION.
679
In the year 1789 began the great French Revolution, or rebellion of
the French people against the government and the laws of France.
The movement spread like wildfire through the country, and was
especially strong in Paris and in one or two of the great towns. Every-
where men cried out for "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity." All men,
they said, should be free and equal, and as brothers to one another.
THE BASTILLE, PARIS.
The great prison of the Bastille in Paris was attacked and destroyed ;
and messengers were sent out to every country in Europe to teach
foreign nations the new and wonderful doctrine of " Liberty, Equality,
and Fraternity." Unluckily, however, these great changes were not to
be made peaceably. The hatred of those who so long had felt them-
selves oppressed soon broke out against the nobles and the rich—
" Aristocrats," as they were called. Terrible scenes of bloodshed took
place in Paris. Thousands of the " Aristocrats " were forced to
68o HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
emigrate from their country, and to take refuge in other lands. The
king, Louis XVI, himself was made a prisoner in his own palace ; and,
though he tried to escape, he and his queen, Marie Antoinette, were
caught and brought back to Paris.
The Death of Louis XVI.
1 ' Unhappy country I How is the fair gold-and-green of the ripe bright
Year defaced with horrid blackness ; black ashes of Chateaus, black bodies
of gibbeted Men I Industry has ceased in it ; not sounds of the hammer
and the saw, but of the tocsin and alarm-drum. The sceptre has departed,
whither one knows not."—Carlyk.
It was not long before what had taken place in France had its effect
in England. Many of the rights which the French claimed had long
ago been granted in England, and the " free " government of the country
by Parliament had prevented the English people from becoming divided
amongst themselves as the people had become in France. But, though
in many ways England was better off than France, there were still great
poverty and much suffering among the very poor, and there were many
laws which were harsh and oppressive. And so, when it was known
in England that the French people had risen in revolt with a cry of
"Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity" upon their lips, there were
thousands who rejoiced at what had been done, and there were many
who were even ready to follow the example of the French, and to
attack the laws and the government of their country.
It was not long, however, before the English people began to see
that, though there might be a great deal of excuse for what the French
revolutionists were doing, yet that what they did was most dangerous,
and threatened before long to set not only France but all Europe in a
blaze. For, not content with crying out for " Liberty, Equality, and
Fraternity," the leaders of the Revolution in Paris had begun to
persecute all those who did not agree with them. The guillotine — an
instrument used for beheading criminals in France — was set up in
Paris, and scores of "Aristocrats" and others who were supposed
to be enemies of the Revolution were seized and executed without
trial. Massacres took place, and panic spread throughout the city.
Louis XVI. had married Marie Antoinette, sister of the Emperor of
Austria, and an Austrian army now marched into France to rescue
the king and queen from the danger which threatened them.
THE DEATH OF Louis XVI.
681
Then was seen a wonderful sight. The leaders of the Revolution
called upon all Frenchmen to come forward and fight against the
Austrians. To the surprise of all Europe, the ill-clad, badly trained
soldiers who marched into battle to the cry of " Liberty, Equality, and
Fraternity," or singing the "Marseillaise" — the great song of the
Revolution— proved more than a match for the veterans of Austria,
and the invaders
were defeated
again and again.
Meanwhile the
anger of the leaders
against the king
grew fiercer and
fiercer. On the lyth
of January, 1793,
the National Con-
vention, or Parlia-
ment of the Re-
volution, voted for
the king's death;
and on the 2ist
of January Louis
XVI. was behead-
ed in the midst of
a howling crowd in
one of the public
squares of Paris.
On the 1 6th of
October his beau-
tiful queen follow-
ed him to the
scaffold.
All Europe was
shocked at these
deeds; but the leaders of the Revolution, so far from being abashed,
now decided to carry the war into the enemy's country. They
declared that all nations which did not agree with the doctrines of
the Revolution were enemies; that their governments must be de-
stroyed ; and that freedom after the French pattern must be given
to their peoples. Armies were formed, and marched into Belgium
and into the German Provinces across the Rhine.
LOUIS XVI.
(After a painting by Boze, 1785.)
w1
682 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Great Britain and the Revolution.— The British Navy.
" Thus much is certaine : That hee that Commands the SEA, is at great
liberty, and may take as much, and as little of the Warre, as he will,
Whereas those, that be strongest by land, are many times .neuerthelesse in
great Straits. Surely, at this Day, with us of EUROPE, the Vantage of
Strength at SEA (which is one of the Principal! Dowries of this Kingdome
of GREAT BRITTAINE) is Great; Both because, Most of the Kingdomes of
EUROPE, are not meerely Inland, but girt with the SEA, most part of
their Compasse; And because, the Wealth of both INDIES, seemes in great
Part, but an Accessary, to the Command of the SEAS."— Bacon's Essay
" On the Greatnesse of Kingdomes and Estates."
It was not wonderful that in Great Britain there soon came a change
of feeling towards the Revolution ; and many of those who had at first
wished well to the leaders of the new party in France now began to
look upon them with disgust and fear— disgust at their cruel and lawless
doings, and fear of their threats of war and of their attempts to raise
disturbances in other countries.
Pitt was one of the first to see that, though the French had begun
by declaring that what they sought was to make all men equal and
free, and to unite them in brotherly love, what they were actually doing
could only lead to strife and bloodshed.
In England some of the most extreme friends of the Revolution
tried to stir up the people to revolt. They said — what was true — that
there was much misery in the land, and that many of the laws wanted
altering; and they urged the English people to follow in the footsteps
of the French in order to bring about the change. But Pitt, though
he had always shown himself ready to make wise reforms and changes
in the law, would never consent to allow lawlessness or violence?
Severe laws were passed to put down the violent party whose best
friends were in France. Many of these laws seem harsh and unwise to
us now ; but they were supported at the time by the great majority of
the people of the United Kingdom, who saw the horrors which had
taken place in France, and who felt that anything was better than a
repetition of such horrors in their own country.
It was impossible that France should long carry on war in Europe
without coming into conflict with British interests. Indeed, there can be
little doubt that from the first it was the intention of the French to force
a war upon Britain, It was not, however, till the year 1793— the year
THE BRITISH NAVY. 683
in which King Louis was beheaded — that war was actually declared
between England and France. From that day forward, for twenty-two
years, the long struggle between England and France continued with
but one short break. Not only England and France, indeed, but all
the countries of Europe — and for a time also the United States of
America — became engaged in the war.
It was a time of terrible danger and trial for this country. While
other nations were defeated, and their territory overrun by the
victorious armies of France, Britain alone held her own unharmed.
Deserted by all her allies, she kept up what seemed at first a most
unequal conflict unaided ; and at last, when the tide of battle turned,
and Britain and the Continental nations succeeded in driving back
the French armies to their own country, it was Great Britain who was
looked upon by all as the first and the greatest among the allies.
To two causes, above all others, was the success of our country due.
In the first place, as compared with other European countries, we had
a really free and popular government ; and the whole power of the nation
supported Parliament and the king s Ministers even in the stormiest
times.
In the second place, we entered on the war with a powerful and
well-trained Navy. Every year saw an increase in the strength of that
Navy, and in the perfection of its training. For ten years running,
nineteen million pounds a year was spent on the Navy alone ; and the
sacrifices of the country were not without their reward. Our fleets,
under their great commanders, St. Vincent, Nelson, Collingwood, and
many another gallant seaman, swept the seas. While France was
master of half Europe, her dominion never extended beyond low-water
mark. Britain was mistress of the sea; her shores were safe from
attack ; and the growth of her commerce upon the waters brought
riches to her people, while to other nations the war brought nothing
but misery and ruin.
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
CHAPTER LXX.
THE GREAT WAR WITH FRANCE.
PART I.
Napoleon Buonaparte.
''Some, what is more to the purpose, bethink them of the Citizen
Buonaparte, unemployed Artillery-Officer, who took Toulon." — Carlyle.
IT is impossible to tell here the whole story of the long war which now
desolated Europe. Britain took the side of Austria, and Pitt sent large
sums of money to the Austrian Government. Unluckily, the Austrian
armies, though they have always shown the most heroic bravery, have
seldom been fortunate in war, and our allies suffered defeat in more
than one battle.
For a time, however, the fortunes of war appeared to be equally
divided, and there seemed reason to hope that France, exhausted by
the war and weakened by troubles at home, would be compelled to
make peace. But all these hopes were destined to be disappointed.
In the year 1795 the friends of the Revolution were still masters of
France, and, though the most violent and cruel of the leaders had lost
their lives in the struggle, the heads of the government of the French
Republic still preached the old doctrine of " Liberty, Equality, and
Fraternity." They were far from guessing how soon they would throw
all their fine ideas to the winds, and how soon they would give up their
cry of " Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity" for that of " Long live the
Emperor ! "
It was in the year 1795 that a quarrel broke out between the two
parties which were fighting for power in Paris. Among the chief men
on one side was Barras. Barras made up his mind that, in order to
protect himself and his friends, the soldiers must be called in, and that
if necessary they must be compelled to fire upon anyone who opposed
them. He looked about for a man on whom he could rely to lead the
soldiers. He found him. The man he found was a young Colonel of
Artillery, only twenty-six years old. He was a Corsican who had
NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE,
685
already distinguished himself in fighting against the English at Toulon.
His name was Napoleon Buonaparte.
Buonaparte did all that he was ordered, and more than all. The
troops under his command fired without hesitation upon the people.
The party of Barras were masters of Paris. But Barras and his
friends had found their master also. The young soldier soon became
the most famous and
most popular man in
Paris. He was made
a general, and in the
year 1796 vvas order-
ed to take command
of the French army
sent to fight the Aus-
trians in Italy.
From that day
forward the name of
Napoleon Buona-
parte became famil-
iar in every country
in Europe. This is
not the place to
write the story of
this wonderful man ;
but that he was one
of the most wonder-
ful men that ever
lived is beyond dis-
pute. We may ad-
mire him, as many
people did ; we may
hate him, as many NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE, FIRST CONSUL.
people also did ; but (From a drawing by L. David.}
no one can read the
history of his life without feeling that he was one of the most
extraordinary men of whom history has given us an account, and
that whatever he did, good or bad, showed him to be a man of
wonderful power and gifted with a wonderful mind.
Now we must leave France and come back to England, and see
how she fared. At first she fared but ill ; and, had it not been for the
success of her fleets, we should have nothing but disaster to record.
Fortunately, even at this early date the British fleets showed their
686 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
superiority. Lord Howe entirely defeated a French fleet off Ushant on
the ist of June, 1794, and the battle has become ever memorable in our
naval history as " The Glorious First of June." In the following year our
failures in Europe were made up for by some very important successes
elsewhere. The Dutch had been compelled to take sides witb the
French, and to declare war against England. Tl-iey soon suffered for
doing so, for British expeditions promptly took possession of the island
of Ceylon, the Cape of Good Hope, and Demerara, or British Guiana, in
South America, all of which are at the present time parts of the British
Empire.
Meanwhile Buonaparte had led the French armies to victory in
Italy; and had not only beaten the Austrians but had compelled the
Spaniards, as well as the Dutch, to take the side of France. He was
determined that, if the French fleet were not strong enough alone, he
would add to it other fleets which would enable him to crush Great
Britain. Preparations were actually made in the Dutch ports for an
invasion of England ; but another great victory at sea once more saved
the country. Sir John Jervis fell in with the Spanish fleet off Cape
St. Vincent, on the south-west corner of Spain, and totally defeated
it (1797).
It was in this battle that Captain Horatio Nelson displayed a skill
and courage which made his name famous through the United
Kingdom. In his ship the Captain he succeeded in cutting off the
retreat of the Spaniards ; two of their ships, the San Nicholas and San
Josef, though they had received a hard pounding from Nelson's friend,
Captain 1'rowbridge, of the Excellent, would have escaped had not
Nelson boldly laid his ship alongside the nearest Spanish vessel, and
taken possession of her at the head of a party of boarders. From
the first ship he and his men clambered over to the second, which in
turn surrendered to him. The story is told of how Nelson, standing on
the deck of one of the captured ships, received the swords of the
Spanish officers, and as he received them handed them on to his old
coxswain, William Fearney ; Fearney, in the most matter-of-fact way,
tucked the swords under his arm, until he had quite a bundle of them.
A well-known picture commemorates the incident.
687
The Mutiny of the Fleet.
"At this juncture, our one efficient arm, to which atone the nation could
look for solace and even protection, was paralysed by insubordination ;
the flag of lawlessness had been hoisted, and the guns of the Nauy were
pointed at British shores."— Lord Rosebery : " Life of Pitt."
The year 1797 is a very dark one in our history, for it seemed as if
the one great safeguard of the nation — our fleet — were about to fail us in
the hour of danger. The treatment of the seamen had long been very
bad; their pay often did not reach the men, though the money had
been voted by Parliament. Many small acts of injustice were justly
complained of by the sailors, and among their officers there were some
who had made themselves hated by their severity. In this year (1797)
the discontent in the fleet came to a head. The crews of the ships at
Spithead mutinied, and refused to obey their officers. At the same time
the seamen, true to their habits of discipline and obedience, kept order
on their own ships, and stated their grievances respectfully. By the
wise action of Lord Howe, and by fair concessions, the mutiny was put an
end to, and the men were induced to return to their duties.
But a much more serious mutiny broke out among the ships at the
Nore, where the movement was headed by a seaman of the name of
Parker. The ships were actually drawn across the mouth of the Thames
so as to blockade London, and the government was forced to build
forts and to place guns along the banks of the river for the purpose of
sinking the mutinous ships if they refused to surrender. The panic in
London — and, indeed, throughout the country — was great, as well it.
might be. The Funds fell to 46, and an Act of Parliament was passed
allowing the Bank of England to make payment in paper money instead
of in gold, so great had been the cost of the war and so scarce was the
money required to pay for it.
Happily, however, the danger soon passed away. The mutineers
at the Nore, frightened by the firmness of the government, and know-
ing that their countrymen disapproved of their violence, returned to
their duties. Parker and one or two other ringleaders were taken and
hanged. It was time that the fleet should be ready for action. Already
a Dutch fleet was assembled in the River Texel under the orders of the
French government, and was ready to sail out any moment. Admiral
Duncan was blockading it with his squadron, when, to his despair, the
688 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
whole of his ships, with the exception of his own flagship and two
frigates, sailed away to join the mutineers at the Nore.
What was to be done ? The only hope was to deceive the enemy,
and this the Admiral succeeded in doing. All day long he made signals
from his ship as if the rest of his fleet were out of sight to seaward.
So the Dutch thought ; and it was not till after the mutiny was over, and
the British men-of-war had returned, that they at last ventured to sea.
A fierce action took place off Camperdown (1797). The Dutch, always
most stubborn fighters, showed themselves worthy of their old renown,
but the victory remained with the British. Eleven Dutch ships were
captured, and Duncan justly earned the title "Viscount Duncan."
"The Nile," and the Defence of Acre.
" To Sir Sidney Smith now fell the distinguished duty of meeting and
stopping the greatest general of modern times," — Captain Mahan, United
States Navy : " Influence of Sea Power."
But, in these stormy days, if war ceased in one part of the world it
was sure to be going on in another. In 1798 Buonaparte sailed with a
French army for Egypt. The great French general hoped that by
conquering Egypt he might open the way to India, and thus win for
France the empire of the East. The French army was safely landed,
and soon made itself master of Egypt. But the fleet which had brought it
was destined never to return to France. On the ist of August Admiral
Nelson discovered the French fleet drawn up in line at anchor in the
Bay of Aboukir, close to one of the mouths of the River Nile. There
was but scanty room between the French ships and the land — too little
room, the French admiral thought, to allow another fleet to pass inside
him without running aground.
Not so thought Lord Nelson. A ship which is at anchor swings
with every change of wind and tide. " Where a ship can swing," said
Nelson, " another ship can float," and he boldly led his squadron inside
the French line. One ship, the Culloden, went ashore, but with the
rest he fiercely engaged the enemy. The battle lasted through the
night. The French flagship caught fire and blew up. In the morning
the victory was complete. Out of seventeen ships the French had
lost thirteen— taken, burnt, or sunk. Two ships of the line and two
frigates alone escaped, and of these four ships three were afterwards
taken. Never was victory more complete.
690 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
But though the French army could not return to France, it was still
all-powerful in Egypt, and Buonaparte himself undertook to lead it
northward on the road to further triumphs, either at Constantinople or
on the way to India. Once again, however, the British Navy placed
an obstacle in his path. The town of Acre lay on the line of march.
It was ill-fortified, and defended by a weak Turkish garrison. Luckily,
the garrison included a British Naval Officer, Captain Sir Sidney Smith,
who was the life and soul of the defence. Again and again did the
French Grenadiers throw themselves upon the walls ; again and again
were they driven back by the brave garrison. At last relief came by
sea, the French were forced to raise the siege and to retreat, and
Buonaparte was compelled to give up all hopes of Eastern conquest.
But this great man only passed from defeat to greater victories.
Despairing of success in Egypt, he returned to France, succeeding,
almost by a miracle, in escaping from the British cruisers in the
Mediterranean. Once back in France, he soon became undisputed
master of the power and resources of that country. In 1799 he was
made head of the French Government, under the name of " First
Consul," and for fifteen years to come he remained absolute master
of France.
"Armed Neutrality."— The Battle of Copenhagen
and Peace of Amiens.
" The Royal Navy of England hath ever been its greatest defence' and
ornament ; it is its ancient and natural strength — the floating bulwark of
our Island." — Blackstone's Commentaries.
England soon found, to her cost, that a strong Government had been
set up in France. In Italy, the French under Buonaparte defeated the
Austrians at the great battle of Marengo. Another Austrian army was
routed by the French, under General Moreau, at Hohenlinden, in Bavaria.
Austria could hold out no longer, and was compelled to make peace.
Russia had up to this time remained friendly to England, but now
Buonaparte succeeded in persuading Paul, the Russian Emperor, to
take sides against England.
Soon the Northern Powers— Russia, Sweden, and Denmark— were
compelled to join with France in refusing to allow British vessels to
carry cargoes into their ports. This agreement, known as the " Armed
692
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Neutrality," at first caused great loss and suffering in our country. The
price of corn rose to 1205. a quarter, and the greatest distress pre-
vailed. Had it not been for the strength of the Navy, Buonaparte
would have been able by this plan to crush England without a battle.
We shall see, however, that the plan failed.
At the time, the British Government answered Buonaparte by giving
orders to our Naval officers to seize cargoes carried in any of the ships
going to or from the ports
of France or her allies.
All this time Pitt had
remained Prime Minister,
striving hard to save the
country from the dangers
by which it was sur-
rounded. His work was
hard enough, for the
friends on whom he had
to depend were, many
of them, weak and
untrustworthy persons ;
while Fox, the great and
eloquent leader of the
Whig party, though he
was unable to overthrow
Pitt or to deprive him
of the support of the
people, continually at-
tacked him in great
speeches in Parliament,
and on more than one
occasion went so far as
to express his pleasure
at the defeat of the British arms and the success of the enemies of
his own country — a shameful thing for which all Fox's great eloquence
and ability can never atone.
At last, in the year 1801, the quarrels among his supporters became
so bitter that Pitt was actually forced to give up office ; and a weak
and unwise man named Addington1 for a time became Prime Minister.
But, whatever changes took place at home, the war went on abroad.
Buonaparte, who was always anxious to strengthen his fleet, ordered
the Danes to place their ships under his orders. Had this order been
1 Afterwards Viscount Sidmouth.
ADMIRAL LOUD NELSON.
(From the painting by Sir William Beechey, R.A.)
WAR AGAIN. 693
carried out, the danger for England would have been a serious one ;
for the Danes had good ships and excellent sailors. A British fleet was
promptly sent to the Baltic. Sir Hyde Parker was in command ; under
him was Admiral Nelson. The fleet passed the Sound and reached
Copenhagen. The Danes were summoned to give up their ships, and
a fierce battle at once began. Nelson commanded the attack. The
story is told that Admiral Parker, thinking that the fighting was too
fierce and the danger too great, wished to recall Nelson, and that
Nelson, who had previously lost an eye (as well as an arm) in battle,' put
up his telescope to his blind eye, and, declaring that he could not see
the signal which permitted him to withdraw, gave the order for closer
battle.
The Danes fought with the greatest bravery, and the British
suffered heavy losses, but the victory was decisive, and the power of
Denmark to injure us was for a time destroyed. Nor was this all ; for
the presence of Nelson and his victorious fleet in the Baltic was suf-
ficient to prevent the Russian and Swedish ships joining the French.
In the same year the Emperor Paul of Russia was murdered, and his
successor, Alexander I, at once made peace with Great Britain. At
the close of the same year arrangements were made for a general peace,
and the news was hailed with rejoicing through the country, for all
men were tired of the. war, and many believed that Buonaparte was as
sincere in wishing for peace as they were.
Pitt, however, was not one of those who believed that peace would
last, or that Buonaparte could be trusted. He, however, consented to
the terms which were at length arranged at Amiens on the zjth of
March, 1802.
War Again.
"Saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace."— Jeremiah vi. 14.
The Peace of Amiens was not a favourable one to Britain. Under its
terms, Addington agreed to give up all the conquests which had been
made in the war except the islands of Ceylon and Trinidad. The island
of Malta, which had fallen into our hands, was to be surrendered. It
was soon clear, however, that peace was not likely to last very long,
and that those who distrusted Buonaparte had reason on their side.
The First Consul, free from attacks by England, set himself to
work to make treaties and arrangements in Europe, all of which were
6 94 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
intended to make him stronger before war broke out again. Officers
were sent to all the British possessions with orders to report how they
could best be taken and made of use to France. In fact, it was clear
that, as far as Buonaparte was concerned, the peace was only to be a
time of preparation for a second and more successful war. Seeing
that the French did not keep to their promises, the British Government
refused to give up Malta.
Matters soon went from bad to worse. At last Buonaparte openly
insulted Lord Whitworth, the British Ambassador at Paris. It was no
longer possible to keep up the pretence that the two nations were at
peace, and in 1803, but one year after the Treaty of Amiens had been
signed, war broke out again. The feeling between England and France
was more bitter than ever, for Buonaparte actually went so far as to
seize all the English who happened to be in France and throw them
into prison. Such a thing had never been .done before by the ruler of
any nation. No wonder that the British people became angry, and
resolved that they would fight out the battle, whatever it cost them.
But, in fighting out the battle, this country was at first at a great
disadvantage ; for Addington, who was still Prime Minister, was a man
whom nobody trusted ; and when at last a French army was actually
assembling at Boulogne for the purpose of invading England, all men
thought that the time had come when Pitt ought once more to become
head of the Government. This feeling soon became so strong that, at
length, Addington resigned his office in May, 1804, and Pitt, for the last
time, became Prime Minister. In the same year Buonaparte took the
title of Emperor, and reigned thenceforth as an absolute sovereign.
Boulogne— Trafalgar.
" The enemy have learnt to fight beticr than they ever did ; and I hope
it is not injustice to the Second in Command (Admiral Collingwood), who
is now on board the ' Euryalus,' and who fought like a hero, to say that
the Fleet under any other never would have performed what they did under
Lord N., but under Lord N. it seemed like inspiration to most of them.
To give you an idea of the man, and the sort of heart he had, the last
signal he made was such a one as would immortalise any man." — Captain
Blackwood (H.M.S. " Euryalus ") to his wife, October 22nd,
It was indeed time that a strong hand should be at the helm.
Buonaparte had made up his mind that Britain should, once for all,
be crushed. He formed a great camp at Boulogne, and there tens of
NELSON COMING ON PE^K 3EFORE THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR.
6q6 HISTORY OF ENGLAND,
thousands of French soldiers were collected for the invasion of
England. Hundreds of boats were got together, and every day the
soldiers were practised in embarking and disembarking. Proclamations
were actually printed in English, dated from London. In these the
people of Great Britain were told that the French had come to deliver
them from the tyranny of their Government, and to bestow upon them
all the benefits of the great French Revolution. These proclamations
were to be distributed as soon as the French army got to London.
There is a story of a British Admiral who was present when the
question of an invasion by the French was being talked about. He
was asked what he thought. " Well," said he, " I do not know how
they will come ; for my part, all I can say is that they shall not come
by water." This was just the difficulty which beset Napoleon Buona-
parte. Everything was ready for an invasion of England except that
the invading army was on the wrong side of the Channel, and on the
sea was the British fleet.
Buonaparte knew well that his only hope was either to destroy the
British fleet or to get it out of the way for a time. One French fleet
was at Brest, a harbour on the north-west coast of France ; another
was in the harbour of Toulon, in the south-east, and had been watched
there by Admiral Nelson for many a long month. Buonaparte ordered
the Toulon fleet to go to sea at any cost. His plan was that it should
lead Nelson to pursue it, should give him the slip, and should return,
pick up the ships at Brest, and, thus strengthened, sail on to Boulogne
in full strength, and protect the invading army.
The plan very nearly succeeded. The French fleet actually escaped
from Toulon; Nelson went after it, and, though he followed it to the
West Indies, failed to catch it. He returned in hot haste, almost
heartbroken to think that in the meantime the invasion might have
taken place. Luckily, however, this misfortune did not overtake our
country. Sir Robert Calder, with an ill-equipped, badly- manned fleet,
fell in with the returning Toulon ships in the Bay of Biscay. Calder
defeated the enemy, and took two ships. The rest took refuge in the
harbour at Cadiz.1
Buonaparte waited anxiously for the coming of his fleet, but it
never came. On the 2ist of October, 1805, the British fleet, consisting
of twenty-seven ships of the line, under the command of Lord Nelson,
fell in with the combined French and Spanish fleets, numbering thirty-
1 Nothing showed more clearly how much English people had come to expect from the Navy
at this time than the fact that Admiral Calder, instead of being rewarded for having saved the
country and taken two )-hips, was actually tried by court-martial and " severely reprimanded
for not having destroyed the French fleet.
5 I
s !
If
« 1
698 tt i STORY OF ENGLAX&.
three ships, under the command of Admirals Villeneuve and Gravina, off
Cape Trafalgar, in the south-west corner of Spain.
As the ships went into action, Nelson hoisted on his flag-ship, the
" Victory," the famous signal, "England expects every man will do his
duty" Every man did his duty, and ere night fell nearly the whole of
the enemy's fleet had been taken or destroyed. Nelson, struck down by
a bullet fired from the mast-head of the French ship 'Redoubtable, died
in the hour of victory, but he lived long enough to learn that the battle
was won.
The great Admiral was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral mourned by
the entire nation. The news of the great and final victory of Trafalgar
itself seemed hardly to compensate for the loss of the heroic chief who
had so often swept the enemies of his country from the sea, and pre-
served the shores of Britain from the foot of the invader.
But, happily, the great work which Nelson had set himself to
accomplish was done when night fell upon the shattered remnants of
the combined French and Spanish fleets. The power of France upon
the sea had been finally broken, the fear of invasion was removed, and
the way was now open for Britain to make her power felt upon the
land, certain that the sea would always be open for the conveyance of
her troops and the conduct of her commerce.
The figure of Nelson is a great and striking one, and beyond doubt
he was the first among the many distinguished seamen who fought with
him and under him. But, while giving honour, as is due, to the great
Admiral himself, we must not forget the names of St. Vincent and of
Collingwood — from the one of whom he learnt, and with the latter of
whom he worked in friendly rivalry. We must remember the " Band
of Brothers," as Nelson himself called them — the captains who com-
manded our battered ships through the long weary months of block-
ading, and in the day of battle— Hardy, Trowbridge, Ball, and many
another — all these are entitled to be remembered as men who made
our Navy fit to bear the tremendous burden that was laid upon it;
and who taught us the lesson that a powerful, well-trained, and
numerous Navy is the only real protection for our shores and for
the commerce on which we depend.
699
Austerlitz.— Fox in Office.
"He has faults; but they are faults that, though they may in a small
degree tarnish the lustre, and sometimes impede the march, of his abilities,
have nothing in them to extinguish the fire of great virtue." — Edmund
Burke s description of Charles James Fox.
The danger of invasion vanished with the victory of Trafalgar ; and
no one knew this better than Buonaparte himself. Even before the battle
was fought he knew that
Villeneuve had failed
him, and his great mind
turned immediately to-
wards conquest else-
where. The army which
had been assembled for
the overthrow of Britain
suddenly received orders
to turn its back upon the
sea and to march away
towards the south-east.
Almost before the
world was aware that
.the camp before Bou-
logne had been broken
up, French armies had
advanced into the heart
of Austria. On the igth
of October, two days
before the battle of
Trafalgar, an Austrian
army of 40,000 men was
compelled to lay down
its arms and surrender
at Uhn, in Bavaria. A
month later the French entered Vienna ; and on the and of December,
in the same year, the Austrian army was defeated and almost de-
stroyed at the great battle of Austerlitz.
Britain indeed had been saved by her Navy, but her allies had
CHARLES JAMES FOX.
(After the portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds.}
yoo HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
suffered terrible defeats, and her great enemy, Napoleon Buonaparte,
everywhere victorious on land, was master of Europe. It was at this
unhappy time, when all his efforts to support and strengthen the allies
of England seemed to have failed, that Pitt died. Already in ill-health,
it is said that the news of Ulm and Austerlitz hastened his death
(January 23rd, 1806). He left no statesman equally great to take his
place ; and, though he had not always been fortunate in his under-
takings, Britain recognised in him a man who, in all trials and under
all difficulties, had but one great idea before him — that of serving his
country to the best of his ability. William Pitt was in his forty-seventh
year when he died, and had been twenty-one years a member of the
Government.
On the death of Pitt, his great rival, Fox, took office as Foreign
Secretary. Lord Grenville became Prime Minister, but Fox was the real
head of the Government. For many years Fox had been Pitt's chief
opponent in the House of Commons. He had made speeches, marked
by the most wonderful eloquence, in which he condemned all that Pitt
did, and, above all, condemned the war which Pitt was trying to carry
on with success. Now, however, that Fox, after many years of waiting,
had succeeded in obtaining Pitt's place as the chief member of a
Government, he was very far from following the advice which he
himself had so often given. He did not put an end to the war or make
peace with Buonaparte ; for, indeed, it was clear to all the world that,
whatever he might profess, Buonaparte really aimed at nothing less
than the conquest of the whole Continent, to be followed by the
conquest of Britain.
Unluckily, although Fox agreed to carry on the war, the measures-
which he took were not successful, nor, indeed did he live long enough
to see his own plans carried out. He died in the month of September,
1806, only eight months after his rival Pitt. The tombs of these two
great men are seen close together in Westminster Abbey :
" The mighty chiefs sleep side by side.
Drop upon Fox's grave a tear,
'Twill trickle to his rival's bier ;
O'er Pitt's the mournful requiem sound,
And Fox's shall the notes rebound.
The solemn echo seems to cry —
' Here let their discord with them die.' "
Scott.
701
CHAPTER LXXI.
THE GREAT WAR WITH FRANCE.
PART II.
Buonaparte Master of Europe— Jena— Eylau.
". . . —they rose, a nation true,
True to itself— the mighty Germany,
She of the Danube and the Northern Sea,
She rose — and off at onoe the yoke she threw."
Wordsworth : " A Prophecy, 1807."
ENGLAND, alas! was now poorer by the loss of three great men, and
she could ill afford to lose great men at a time when so many dangers
beset her. Nelson, Pitt, and Fox had all passed away within a few
months of one another. Luckily for England, though much was lost,
much yet remained to her. The victory of Trafalgar had made her
undisputed mistress of the seas. Although there were much suffering
and poverty in the country, still, there had been a steady growth
in wealth and prosperity. No enemy had gained a footing on her
shores, and the spirit of the people was as firm as ever in its determina-
tion to fight out the struggle with France to its bitter end. And,
lastly, it became clear that, though some great Englishmen had passed
away, there were others ready and able to take their places. It was
not long before the name of one of the greatest of these began to be
known — first, in England, and then throughout Europe. It was the
name of Arthur Wellesley.
The Ministry which Fox had formed lasted only a few months after
his death ; and in 1807 a new Ministry was formed, of which the head
was the Duke of Portland, but of which Lord Castlereagh and Canning
were the principal members. It was their duty to carry on the war
with France, but they soon found themselves threatened by a new
move on the part of Buonaparte.
It seemed as if that great man, not content with defeating the
Austrians, were determined to make all Europe either his allies or his
slaves. In 1806 France picked a quarrel with Prussia. The Prussian
702 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
army was no longer what it had been under Frederick the Great. The
French gained a complete victory. The Prussian armies were almost
destroyed at the two battles of Jena and Auerstadt. Prussia, men
thought, had been for ever blotted out of the list of great nations.
But, with nations as with men, it often happens that a time of trial
and suffering is the beginning of a new and better life. From the very
day of the defeat at Jena the new life of Prussia began. Shame and
sorrow weighed down the mind of every Prussian who loved his
country ; but the best men in Prussia were not content with sorrowing
over their misfortunes : they determined thai they would do all in their
power to free their country and to make it once more great and inde-
pendent. Little by little, step by step, they did their work. They
taught their countrymen that the one great thought of their lives
ought to be the freedom of their country and the defeat of those who
had invaded it. They taught them, too, that only by patient self-
denial, by practice and never-ending trouble, could they hope to make
a Prussian army strong enough to drive out the French conquerors.
We shall see how, in time, the work of these brave and wise Prussians
was rewarded, and how at length Prussia not only drove the invaders
out, but how her soldiers carried her flag into the city of Paris itself.
But for the time things looked very dark. Berlin, the capital of
Prussia, was occupied by the French, and French garrisons were placed
in all the Prussian fortresses. The Emperor of Russia, alarmed at the
sudden defeat of the King of Prussia, sent an army to his aid, but the
Russians were defeated at the terrible battle of Eylau, in 1807; and in
the same year the nations of Europe were terrified to hear that a
treaty of peace and alliance had been made between the Emperor of
the French and the Emperor of Russia, at the little town of Tilsit, on
the River Niemen.
Neither Emperor would admit that he was the inferior in rank or
dignity to the other. Neither would consent to visit the territory of
the other even for the purpose of signing the treaty. It was, therefore,
arranged that the two Sovereigns should meet upon a raft anchored in
the middle of the River Niemen. In this way the pride of both sides
was satisfied. The two Emperors were recognised as equal, and it
seemed as if the rest of Europe had only to submit to whatever terms
France and Russia might impose upon it.
704 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Wellesley in India— " The Continental System."
"Great as was the power of Napoleon, it ceased, like that of certain
wizards, when it reached the water. Enemies and neutrals alike bowed
to his invincible armies and his superb genius when he could reach them
by land ; but beyond the water there was one enemy, Great Britain, and
one neutral, America,1 whom he could not directly touch." — Captain Mahav»
United States Navy (" Influence of Sea Power"},
But already causes were at work which were in the end to bring
about the downfall of the great French Empire which now seemed so
strong and so secure. One Power still remained unconquered and
unconquerable, and that Power was Britain.
While France extended her boundaries in Europe, Britain added to
her Empire over the seas. Ever since the days of Clive the power of
Britain in India had been growing, and in the years between 1802 and
1806— those years in which the Austrians had been beaten at Austerlitz
and the Prussians at Jena — British troops had been winning victories
over native armies aided by French officers in India.
In September, 1803, was won the battle of Assaye, in which 4,500
troops in the British employ routed an army of 30,000 men under the
native Prince of Scindia. The victorious British General was Arthur
Wellesley, whose name was soon to become famous in history as Arthur,
Duke of Wellington.
In the same year General Lake won the victories of Alighur and
Laswaree, and captured the cities of Delhi and Agra. Once more all the
attempts on the part of France to oppose us in India were defeated,
and the power of Britain was established more firmly than ever in the
Peninsula. It has been said that The gate of India is the Cape of Good
Hope. The Cape of Good Hope, as we know, had been taken once by
England (1795), but had been given up again at the Peace of Amiens
(1802). In 1806 it was captured a second time, and from that day
forward has been one of the most important parts of the British
Empire. Three years earlier the British flag was planted in yet another
quarter of the globe, and the colony of British Guiana, in the north-
eastern corner of South America, was captured from the Dutch.
Buonaparte, who had hoped to secure for France so many of the
British possessions, now saw with disgust that those possessions were
1 Meaning "The United States " of America.
THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM.
7«5
increasing in number and strength. He had learnt that he could not
destroy the naval power of Britain upon the sea ; he now bethought
him of a plan by which he hoped that he might destroy it from the
land.
In November, 1806, " The Berlin Decree" was issued by Buonaparte
declaring the British Islands to be blockaded, all commerce and
CAPE TOWN.
correspondence with Great Britain were forbidden, Englishmen found
in France were to be made prisoners of war, and their property
seized, all British manufactures and the produce of British colonies
were to be confiscated, and British vessels, or those coming from any
British port, were to be refused admission to any French harbour.
In the following year (1807) a still further step in the same direction
was taken. By the " Milan Decree'" l it was declared that any ship of
whatever nation, which, after touching at any British port, landed its
cargo at any European port might be seized, and its cargo taken by the
Government. In order to make this plan work, it was necessary that
every port in Europe should be closed against our ships, and an agree-
ment between France and Russia was arrived at by which it was hoped
1 The Milan Decree is so called because it was written from Milan, in It.ily.
X
706 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
that this purpose would be accomplished. The system which was set
up under this agreement became known as " The Continental System."
It was hoped that by these means the enormous trade which was
carried on by British ships, or by foreign ships sailing from British
ports would be put an end to. But, unluckily for Buonaparte and his
hopes, the ships which were at sea carried vast quantities of merchan-
dise which the people of Europe were most anxious to have, and could
ill do without. The whole of what was called the "colonial trade "-
the trade in sugar, spices, rum, silks, and, indeed, the whole of the
products of distant lands — could only enter Europe by sea. If they
came from ports which were friendly to France, the chances were ten
to one that the ships would be seized by the ever-watchful British
cruisers. If they came in British ships or in ships which sailed from
British ports, they were seized by the French officials, and thus, either
way, the unhappy people who wanted the goods were the losers.
The suffering on the Continent soon became very great, and all sorts
of tricks were tried to evade the decree. In the city of Hamburg
brown sugar was actually carted out and laid down in the streets under
the pretence that it was sand; in this way the watchfulness of the
Custom House officers was evaded, and the sugar was afterwards
gathered up in the streets and applied to its proper purposes.
It soon became clear that, though Buonaparte had succeeded in
injuring his enemies a good deal, he had injured his own people and
those whom he had forced to be his allies a great deal more. Nothing
made the French Government more hated throughout Europe than the
suffering which arose out of the " Continental System."
Again it was proved that if Britain could only keep command of
the sea she was safe. For a moment it seemed as if her power at
sea were again to be threatened, for news reached England that
Buonaparte was about to seize the fleet of Denmark, which had been
strengthened since the first battle off Copenhagen. A second time a
British fleet was sent to the Danish capital. The Danes were ordered
to give up their ships. Like brave men, they refused. The city was
bombarded (1807), and the fleet was taken and brought to England.
Once more the threat against our power at sea had failed.
707
War on Land— The Peninsula— Failure.
We buried him darkly — at dead of night,
The sods with our bayonets turning ;
By the struggling moonbeam's misty light,
And the lantern dimly burning.
'No useless coffin enclosed his breast,
Nor in sheet nor in shroud we wound him ;
But he lay like a warrior taking his rest,
With his martial cloak around him."
C. Wolfe: " Burial of Sir John Moore.
Now that at last all fear of attack upon the shores of Britain was
removed, the British Government felt that the time had come to carry
on the war by land as well as by
sea, and for that purpose troops
were sent to Spain and to Por-
tugal. Thus began the famous
" Peninsular War," in which British
troops proved themselves as brave
and as capable of winning victory
on land as our sailors had already
proved themselves to be at sea.
The Spanish Peninsula was then,
as now, divided into two king-
doms ; Spain, the larger of the two,
was already under the power of
Buonaparte. The little kingdom
of Portugal still held out, and re-
fused to obey the Emperor's orders
to close its harbours to British
shipping. This furnished a pre-
text for war, and accordingly a
French army marched upon Lis-
bon, and at the same time Joseph
Buonaparte, brother of the French
Emperor, was declared King of Spain, in the place of King Ferdinand.
It was at this stage that British troops were sent out. A small force
under Sir Arthur Wellesley, who had been recalled from India, landed in
SIR JOHN MOORE.
708 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Portugal, where they found that the French had already taken
possession of Lisbon. Fighting began at once, and, to the astonishment
of all Europe, the French veterans were defeated at the battle of
Vimiera (1808). So complete was their defeat that the French general
agreed to abandon Portugal and return to Frarce with all his troops
This arrangement was made at a place called Cintra, and is known as
the Convention of Cintra.
A second expedition was now despatched under Sir John Moore, in
order to march through the north of Spain to the assistance of the
Spanish armies which still resisted French rule. Moore succeeded in
getting as far as a place called Sahagun, when the news came that the
Emperor himself was advancing at the head of a powerful army. The
Spanish troops everywhere gave way, and Moore with his little force
was compelled to retreat with all speed towards the sea. Soult, one of
Napoleon's best generals, followed in pursuit with an army of 60,000
men. The retreat was terrible. At last, after great suffering and loss,
Moore with his little force reached the town of Corunna, in the north-
west corner of Spain.
Wherever the waters of the sea could reach, there the British ships
of war could float, and there safety was always to be found. A fleet of
men-of-war and transports was expected at Corunna. Once on board,
his army would be safe ; but so closely did the enemy press on that it
seemed as if the British army might be destroyed before it could
embark. There was nothing for it but to fight, and the tired troops
turned fiercely at bay. The battle that followed was fiercely contested,
but the object of the British was accomplished, and time was gained so
that all could reach the ships in safety.
Unhappily, the gallant general of the British army, Sir John Moore,
was mortally wounded in the battle, January i6th, 1809. The well-
known poem by Wolfe tells us of his hasty burial on the ramparts of
the city.
709
The Walcheren Expedition— Victories in the Peninsula.
" This is England's greatest son.
He that gained a hundred fights,
Nor ever lost an English gun;
This is he 1hat far away
Against the myriads of Assaye
Clash'd with his fiery few and won;
Warring on a later day,
Round the frighted Lisbon drew
The treble works and uast designs
Of his labour'd rampart-lines."
Tennyson : " Lines on the Duke of Wellington.'*
But with the retreat to Corunna came the end of our misfortunes in
Spain, and from that day forward the British troops advanced from
victory to victory until they had placed the " Union Jack " on the
heights of the Pyrenees, and had fought and won a battle under the
walls of Toulouse, on the very soil of France itself.
But while Arthur Wellesley was attacking the farthest point of the
great French empire, other dangers threatened it in the heart .of
Europe. In 1809 Austria again declared war with France, and again
the Austrian armies suffered defeat ; but in the great battles of Essling
and Wagram they fought with an obstinacy which, cost the French dear.
Once more Buonaparte marched in triumph to Vienna, and this time,
as though to make his conquest secure for ever, he persuaded or com-
pelled the Emperor of Austria to bestow upon him the hand of his
daughter, Marie Louise, in marriage.
The same year, 1809, was one of varying fortunes as far as Britain
was concerned. An expedition of 40,000 men, which was sent to
Walcheren, in the south-west corner of Holland, ended in a total and
disastrous failure. Everything was mismanaged, fever broke out, and
thousands of soldiers died miserably. It is said that out of 40,000 men
sent out to the Island of Walcheren, no less than. 35,000 men were
compelled, at one time or another, to go into hospital.
But while the news from Holland was bad, the news from Spain
was good, for tidings came that at the battle of Talavera (1809)
Arthur Wellesley had a second time defeated the French. As a reward
for his victory the general received the title of Viscount Wellington. But
the Spaniards everywhere melted away before the French troops, and
for a time Wellington was forced to retreat, and to shelter his army
7ro HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
behind the famous fortifications which he caused to be built round
Lisbon, and which were known as the Lines of " Torres Vedras."
It was not till 1811 that Wellington felt strong enough to move
forward again. In that year he began his march towards the north-
east, his object being to drive the French gradually back into their own
country.
On the i6th of May was fought the terrible and indecisive battle of
Albuera. The French were still far too strong, and our Portuguese and
Spanish allies far too weak to allow of any real advance into Spain.
In the following year, however, a most important piece of news reached
Wellington, namely, that the peace between France and Russia was at
an end, and that the Emperor had decided to embark on one more
great war. From that day the whole energy of Buonaparte was given
up to preparing for the great expedition which he had decided to make
into the heart of Russia.
Exhausted by many years of war, France could no longer raise
army after army as she had done in the first years of the Revolution,
Troops could no longer be spared to help Joseph Buonaparte in Spain,
and some of the best soldiers were recalled from the Peninsula to take
their places in the " Grand Army."
The Russian Campaign— The Abdication of the Emperor
-War with the United States.
"Soldiers, the second Polish War has begun. The first ended at
Fried land and Tilsit At Tilsit Russia swore eternal friendship to France,
eternal enmity to England. To-day she has violated these oaths. She
will vouchsafe no explanation of this strange conduct saue that the French
Eagles have not recrossed the Rhine and left our allies at her mercy.
Russia hurrying to her fate must fulfil her destiny. Does she think that
we are degenerate ? That we have ceased to be the soldiers of Austerlitz ?
She offers us the choice between dishonour and war. Can our decision be
in doubt ? Forward, then ; let us cross the Niemen, and carry war into
the enemy's territory. The second Polish War shall not be less glorious
to the arms of France than was the first ; but the peace which we will
conclude will bring its own guarantee, and will end for ever the baneful
influence which Russia has exerted for 50 years past over the affairs of
Europe." — (The Emperor's Proclamation to the Grand Army of Russia.)
On the 24th of June, 1812, the " Grand Army " of 450,000 men began
to cross the river Niemen into Russia under the eyes of the Emperor.
Tt/K £ us si. -IN CAMPAIGN. 711
It was this same River Niemen upon which the raft had floated on
which the Emperors of France and Russia had signed the famous
Treaty of Tilsit only five years before.
In January of the same year Wellington's army had broken down
the first of the barriers which blocked the road to France, taken by
storm the strong fortress of Ciudad Rodrigo, and three months later that
of Badajoz, a still greater and stronger barrier. On the 22nd of July
Wellington entirely defeated the French at the battle of Salamanca.
In September the " Grand Army," after fighting a terrible battle at
Borodino, in which 80,000 men were killed and wounded, entered the
city of Moscow, the ancient capital of Russia. They found the city
deserted, and in a few days, to the horror of the invaders, there broke
out great fires in every quarter of the city, fires kindled by the Russians
themselves, who preferred to see their capital burned rather than in
the possession of an invader.
There was nothing left to the " Grand Army " but to retreat, and
retreat across Northern Russia in the heart of a Russian winter meant
death. Frost and famine struck down the retreating soldiers in
thousands and tens of thousands. Of the great host which crossed the
Niemen scarcely 10,000 returned in any order to the safety of the
French frontier. And even here there was no safety, for the French
frontier at that time included the Kingdom of Prussia, which had been
forced into alliance with the Emperor. Now that the Emperor had
fallen, both Austria and Prussia joined forces with the pursuing
Russians, and France found herself face to face with the combined
armies of Russia, Prussia, and Austria on the east, and with the com-
bined armies of Britain, Portugal, and Spain on the south-west.
For a time the genius and military skill of the Emperor enabled him
to keep up the -unequal struggle, but not for long.
On the 2ist of June, 1813, Wellington routed the French Army at
Vittoria, and sent King Joseph and his Court flying out of Madrid. By
the end of the year the duke had crossed the Pyrenees, and on the loth
of April, 1814, he fought a final battle under the walls of Toulouse.
But already, ere the battle of Toulouse was fought, Buonaparte had
ceased to reign. The three great armies of Russia, Prussia, and
Austria had succeeded in uniting, and on the i6th of October, 1813, had
forced the Emperor to give battle on the outskirts of the city of Leipsic
in Saxony. Four hundred thousand men were engaged in the battle. It
lasted three days, and ended in the total defeat of the French. Six
months later, April 4th, 1814, Buonaparte, unable to continue the war,
agreed to abdicate. A great meeting, or Congress, of the representatives
of thfi Allied Powers met at Vienna to decide what should be done with
7T2 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the Emperor, and how the various countries should recover from France
the territories they had lost. It was decided that Buonaparte should
be sent to the little island of Elba, and that he should receive the rank
of " Sovereign " of the island. The British sailors on board the ship
"Undaunted" which carried him to Elba, stitched together a flag which
was hastily invented for the new ruler and his tiny kingdom.
King Louis XVIII., the brother of Louis XVI., who had been
-executed in 1793, was made King of France, and peace was at last
restored to the world.
Unluckily for England, it wa6 not with France alone that peace had
to be made, for in 1812 a useless and unfortunate war had broken out
between Great Britain and the United States. In order to protect British
commerce from the effects of Buonaparte's" Decrees " our Government
had tried to compel all ships of the United States to call at British
ports before landing their cargo. They had also allowed British
officers to search United States ships for deserters. The Government
of the United States complained bitterly. The complaints were listened
to and the orders withdrawn, but too late to prevent war.
The unhappy and useless struggle lasted nearly two years, causing
much ill-feeling and bringing no advantage to anyone. Englishmen
were shocked to find that in several engagements between single ships
our sailors were defeated. The fact was that we had grown too
confident and had become careless. The United States Government
had built vessels which were larger and more powerfully armed than
British ships of the same class.
The famous victory of Captain Brooke, of the " Shannon? over the
" Chesapeake " made some amends for a series of disasters, but the
capture of the " Guerriere " by the " Constitution," and of several other
single ships, was regarded as a calamity in England. The commerce of
the United States on the sea, however, was for a time almost destroyed
by the British Navy, which easily held its own in spite of the mis-
fortunes which have been spoken of.
On land the fortunes of the war varied. A British attack on New
Orleans was defeated with great loss, and our flotilla of boats on Lake
Champlain was destroyed. A British force, however, entered the city of
Washington and burnt the Capitol as a reprisal for the burning of the
public buildings of Canada by the enemy. A Canadian force, com-
posed largely of the descendants of the " United Empire Loyalists,"
sharply defeated a United States force which tried to enter Canada.
The war, which neither side was anxious to prolong, and which had
proved disastrous to the shipping of the United States, was brought
to an end by a treaty signed at Ghent, in Belgium, in December, 1814.
714
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The "Hundred Days," and Waterloo.
"My Lord, "Waterloo, June 19th, 1815.
"It gives me the greatest satisfaction to assure your Lordship that
the Army never, upon any occasion, conducted itself better. The division
of guards . . . set an example which was followed by all ; and there
is no officer, nor description of troops, that did not behave well. . . .
/ send with this despatch two eagles taken by the troops in this action,
which Major Percy will have the honour of laying at the feet of His Royal
Highness."— From the Despatch of Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington, K.G., to
Earl Bathurst, Secretary of State for War.
In the city of Oxford the»e stands, in an open space not far from
Magdalen Bridge, a stone bearing an inscription. The inscription tells
f of the great peace made in
1814, which was welcomed
by all the nations of the
world as the end of more
than twenty years' con-
tinuous war. Well might
the people of Oxford re-
joice that peace had come
at last, for it seemed as
if peace were for ever
banished from the earth.
Children had been born
in the midst of war time,
they had grown up to
manhood, had married,
and their children had in
turn been born into a
world in which the sound
of the cannon and the
clash of arms still drowned
the voice of peace. War,
war, nothing but war ; and
now at last, after more
than a quarter of a cen-
MONUMENT AT OXFORD TO COMMEMORATE
THE PEACE OF 1814.
But what is the date upon this stone ?
come
tury, peace had
back to the land.
It is 1814. We have read
in an earlier portion of this book of the " Famous 'Fifteens,'" the four
THE "HUNDRED DAYS;
7*5
dates ending in " fifteen " which mark in our history great events. "1215,"
the first of them, is the date of Magna Charta ; "1415," the second, is the
date of the Battle of Agincourt ; "1715," the third, the date of the
Jacobite rebellion known as "The 'Fifteen." The last of the four is the
date of a great battle ; it is " 1815," the date of the famous battle of
Waterloo. For after all the rejoicings of Oxford and of the entire
kingdom in 1814, it turned out that peace was not to return for yet
another year, and that the man who so long had plunged all Europe
into war was once more, and
for the last time, to draw the
sword and set the world
aflame.
We have seen how, after
the abdication of Buonaparte
and the Congress of Vienna,
the French Emperor had
been sent to Elba. It was
hoped that in that little
island he would be kept safe.
Great was the consternation
and alarm when, in the month
of March, 1815, news reach-
ed • the Capitals of Europe
that Buonaparte had suc-
ceeded in escaping from
Elba, and had landed at
Cannes, in the South of
France, and that already
the French soldiers who were
serving under Louis XVIII.
had, with scarcely any exception, forsaken their new sovereign for
their old one, and had hastened to put themselves under the orders of
the Emperor as soon as he appeared amongst them.
In a few days Buonaparte was in Paris. The King and his Ministers
fled at his approach, and as if by magic a French army sprang up,
ready once more to fight all Europe under the great General who had
so often led French soldiers to victory.
Luckily, however, for Europe this last attempt to restore the fortunes
of the fallen Empire came too late. Although the old soldiers of Napo-
leon's guard were ready to fight once more, the greater part of the
French people were tired of the war. Moreover, the great armies
which had defeated the Emperor at Leipsic had not yet been broken
THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
(From the portrait by Sir William BffC/tev, R.A.
7.6
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
up, and thousands of soldiers— Russians, Prussians, Austrians, and
British — were still in France, or encamped close to its borders.
It was on the ist of March that Buonaparte landed at Cannes. On
the i6th of June, at the head of a powerful army, he attacked on the
same day a British army at Quatre-Bras and a Prussian army at Ligny.
The Prussians, overwhelmed by superior numbers, were driven back ;
the British held their own with difficulty, and next day retired upon
Waterloo.
The little town
of Waterloo, which
gave its name to
the great battle
which was fought
on the following
day (the 1 8th), lies
about twelve miles
to the south of
the city of Brussels,
and is separated
from it by the
great forest of
Soignies.
It was close to
this spot that the
Duke of Welling-
ton1 determined
to resist the French
attack. He had
under his com-
mand an army of
67,655 men, with
156 guns. Of the
troops, 24,000 were
British, 5,821 were
foreigners under
British command,
the remainder being Hanoverians, Brunswickers, Dutch, and Belgians,
who were acting in the British service, or as our allies under the
command of the Duke. A very large number of the infantry regi-
ments were made up of very young soldiers, who had not before
FIELD-MARSHAL BLUCHER.
(Front the portrait by Sir Thomas Laivrence.}
1 The title of "Duke" was conferred upon Wellington at the close of the Peninsular War
iu 1814.
WATERLOO. 717
taken part in war. The French army was composed of 71,947 men,
with 246 guns.
The night of the i7th of June was wet and stormy; the soldiers,
who were compelled to sleep on the open ground among the unripe
corn, were drenched to the skin. The battle began on the morning of
the 1 8th, which was Sunday ; both Generals were anxiously hopifcg for
news of the coming of help during the day. A French army of 30,000
men under Marshal Grouchy lay watching the Prussians a few miles off,
to the south-east.
Message after message was sent bidding Grouchy hasten to the
assistance of his chief, but the message arrived late, and when it
arrived it was not understood, and Grouchy failed to march in the
direction which would have led him to the battlefield.
. On the other side the Duke of Wellington was anxiously awaiting
aid from the Prussian army under Marshal Bliicher. That Bliicher
would come if he could he knew full well, for old " General Vorwarts " 1
as Bliicher was called by his men, never failed to hasten towards the
sound of the cannon. Whether the Prussians would be able to come,
or to come in time, was another matter.
The battle raged fiercely all the morning. The French cavalry and
infantry made charge after charge upon the British lines and squares.
The loss of life was terrible. A number of the Belgian troops, unused
to war, fled from the field, and entering Brussels in confusion, spread
the report that the day was lost. But the day was not lost. About
midday the sound of firing upon the French right was heard. Some
thought it was Grouchy, some that it was Bliicher.
It turned out to be the vanguard of the Prussian troops under
B'ulow. This was good news indeed for the British General. If only
his troops could hold firm till the Prussians arrived, the day was won.
They did more than hold firm ; as evening fell, a great and final attack
was made by the French guards upon the British line. Like all other
attacks, it was beaten back. The Duke gave the order to charge the
retreating enemy. The retreat soon became a rout, for by this time
the Prussian army was fiercely attacking the right of the French line.
Resistance was no longer possible. The French fled in hopeless con-
fusion, pursued by the Prussians. Wellington and Bliicher met upon
the field of battle. Buonaparte, borne away by his flying troops,
escaped with difficulty. The victory was complete, but the loss had
been great. The loss of the allies was 22,976 killed and wounded ; the
French lost over 30,000, besides many prisoners.
1 "General Forwards.'
718 HISTORY OF ENGLAND,
The Prisoner of St. Helena.
" Farewell to the land, inhere the gloom of my glory,
Arose and o'er-shadowed the earth with her name —
She abandons me now— but the page of her s'ory,
The brightest or blackest, is filled with my fame.
I have warr'd with the world which vanquished me only
When the meteor of conquest allured me too far;
I have coped with the nations which dread me thus lonely,
The last single Captive to millions in war."
Byron : " Napoleon's Farewell.''
Resistance was now really at an end. The allied armies marched on
Paris. Once more King Louis was put back upon the throne ; once
more the fallen Emperor was a fugitive. Not knowing where to turn,
he gave himself up a prisoner to the captain of the British ship
Bellerophon. It was agreed that he should be confined in the little
island of St. Helena, in the Atlantic Ocean, and thither he was taken.
It was not till the year 1821 that Napoleon Buonaparte died in his
island prison, but his part in European history had been played
when he left the field of Waterloo, and it will be well here to tell ID
a few words the remaining story of his life.
From St. Helena he never escaped. The Governor, Sir Hudson
Lowe, kept his prisoner safely. It is to be regretted that he was not
content with this, but it cannot be doubted that he treated the fallen
Emperor with a want of generosity and courtesy which has left a stain
upon his name as a British officer. That Sir Hudson Lowe did what,
he thought was his duty, and that he believed that he was carrying out
the orders which were given to him, can hardly be doubted ; and it must
be said on his behalf that Buonaparte had so often in his life broken his
word and disregarded every obligation of truth and honour, that it
would have been a great mistake to trust him or to believe him. But it
is always well to respect the misfortunes of the fallen and to be
generous to a defeated enemy, and that Sir Hudson Lowe was neither
respectful nor generous is only too true.
Buonaparte died on the 5th of May, 1821. In the year 1840, by per-
mission of the British Government, his body was brought back to France
in a French ship of war, and was buried with great pomp in the stately
tomb which now stands under the Dome of the " Invalides," in Paris.
The story of the battle of Waterloo has been told at some length,
THE PRISONER OF Sr. HELENA.
for, though since the year 1815 many great and many important battles
have been fought, the battle of Waterloo still takes its place, and will
always take its place, as one of the* most famous and most important in
history. It brought about the fall of the great man who for so long had
been the terror of Europe. It put an end to a war which had lasted for
a quarter of a century, and restored peace to the suffering nations. To
everyone of British blood the name must be specially memorable, for
on that famous Sunday in June the young soldiers of Britain showed to
all the world that they were a match in endurance and courage for the
most famous veterans of Europe, and the name of Britain was raised to
the first place among the nations of Europe.
" So great a soldier taught us there
What long enduring hearts could do
In that world-earthquake Waterloo ! " *
CHAPTER LXXII.
GEORGE IV. AND WILLIAM IV.— THE GREAT PEACE.
1820-1837.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGNS OF GEORGE IV.,
; 1820-1830, AND WILLIAM IV., 1830-1837.
George IV., King cf the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, Elector of
Hanover, eldest son of George III.
and Queen Charlotte, b. 1762, became
king 1820, d. 1830.
Caroline of Brunswick, wife of George IV.,
m. 1795, d. 1821.
William, Duke of Clarence, brother of George
IV., b. 1765, became king as William
IV. and Elector of Hanover 1830,
Adelaide of3Saxe-Meiningen, wife of Wil-
liam IV.. m. 1814, d. 1849.
Victoria, only child of Edward. Duke of Kent,
brother of George IV., afterwards
queen.
Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover, brother
of George IV.
LouiS XVIII. (Bourbon), King of France,
d. 1824.
Charles X. (Bourbon), brother of Louis
XVIII., deposed 1830.
LOUiS Philippe (Orleans), King of France.
Francis II., Emperor, became Francis II.,
the first Emperor of Austria, 1804,
d. 1835.
Ferdinand, Emperor of Austria.
Frederick William III., King of Prussia.
Ferdinand VII., King of Spain, d. 1833.
Isabella II., Queen of Spain.
Alexander L, Emperor of Russia, d. 1825.
Nicholas I., Emperor of Russia.
Presidents of the United States :—
James Monroe, 1825.
John Quincy Adams, 1825 to 1829.
General Andrew Jackson, 1829 to 1837.
Principal Ministers of George IV. :-
George Canning, d. 1827.
Robert Jenkinson, Earl of Liver-
pool, d. 1828.
Arthur WeUesley, Duke of Welling^
ton.
Sir Robert Peel.
Principal Ministers of William IV. :-
Arthur Welle sley, Duke of Welling-
ton.
Sir Robert Peel.
Charles, Earl Grey.
William Lamb, Viscount Melbourne.
Great Writers (1820- 1837):—
George Crabbe, b. 17*4, d. 1832.
William Wordsworth, i>. 177°.
Tennyson.
720
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Sir Walter Scott, b. i77r, d. 1832.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, b. 1772,
d. 1834.
Robert Southey, b. 1774.
Thomas Campbell, b. 1777.
Thomas Moore, b. 1779.
Bishop Reginald Heber, b. 1783, d.
1826.
George, Lord Byron, b. 1788, d. 1824.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, b. 1792, d. 1822.
Thomas Hood, b. 1798. '
Charles Lamb, b. 1775, d. 1834.
Washington Irving (American), b. 1783.
Captain F. Marryat, b. 1792.
Mrs. Felicia Hemans, b. 1794, d. 1835.
Thomas Carlyle, b 1795.
Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay,
b. 1800.
Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton, b. 1805.
W. Harrison Ains worth, b. 1805.
Mrs. E. B. Browning, b. 1806.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, b. 1809.
German Writer :—
J. W. von Goethe, b. 1749, d. 1832.
Great Painters (.820-1837) :—
Sir Henry Raeburn (English), d. 1823
Sir Thomas Lawrence (English), d,
1830.
J. M. W. Turner (English), b. 1775.
John Flaxman (Sculptor), d. 1826.
Daniel O'Connell, b. 1775.
William Wilberforce, d. 1833.
Sir T. Fowell Buxton, b. 1786.
John, Earl Rucsell, b. 1792.
Henry, Lord. Brougham, b. 1778.
Henry, Viscount Palmerston, b. 1784.
George Stephenson, b. 1781.
Sir W. Herschel (Astronomer), d. 1822.
Sir Humphry Davy, d. 1829.
Sir John Franklin (Arctic Explorer), d. 1847.
Great Musicians :-
L. Beethoven (German), d. 1827.
F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (German),
b. 1809.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGNS OF GEORGE IV. AND
WILLIAM IV. (1820-1837).
182.0. George IV. becomes king.
Cato Street conspiracy.
1821. Death of Buonaparte at St. Helena.
18*2. Potato famine in Ireland.
1825. Stockton and Darlington Railway
opened.
1827. Battle of Navarino.
1828. The Duke of Wellington Prime Minister.
Repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts.
Death of the Earl of Liverpool.
1829. Catholic Relief Bill passed.
Peel's Metropolitan Police Act passed.
The Sultan acknowledges the indepen-
dence of Greece.
1830. Death of George IV.
1830. William IV. becomes king.
Liverpool and Manchester Railway
opened.
Charles X., King of France, abdicates,
and is succeeded by Louis Philippe.
1831. Reform Bill introduced, and rejected by
the House of Lords.
Riots in various places.
1832. Lord Grey becomes Prime Minister.
The Reform Bill passed.
1833. Colonial Slavery abolished.
First Factory Act.
1834. Lord Melbourne succeeds Lord Grey.
Lord Melbourne replaced by Sir Robert
Peel.
1837. Death of William IV.
The Regency— Georg-e IV.— Navarino.
"Prouder scenes never hallowed war's pomp to the mind,
Than when Christendom's pennons wooed social the wind,
And the flower of her braue for the combat combined,
Her watchword, Humanity's vow !"
Campbell, describing the Allied Fleets at Navarino.
WE now . come to what seems the beginning of quite a fresh chapter
in the history of our country. Hitherto in this book we have been
reading chiefly about wars and fighting and of the long struggle in which
Britain was compelled to take a part. It is impossible to write the
THE REGENCY— GEORGE IV. 721
history of those times without giving up much space to these things, for
when a country is fighting for its life in every part of the world, the
history of the fight must occupy a great, if not the first, place in any
records of the events of the time.
Now, however, we have come, happily, once more to a time of peace,
when the great events which occupy our attention are no longer battles
by sea and land, no longer the conquest of new territories from our
enemies, but rather the conquests of science and invention, the growth
of our territory by peaceful settlement and colonisation, and the
improvement of our laws by the wisdom of our statesmen and the
orderly pressure of the people.
In many ways it seems as if the history of ''modern" England,
such as we know it, begins after the year 1815. Some of the great
questions which then began to be talked about for the first time have
only been settled within quite recent years. Some of them are still
unsettled. There are many other things, too, which mark a division
between the time before 1815 and the years which have passed between
1815 and the present day. We shall read about some of these things
in these pages.
Meanwhile we must go back for a little to the study of dates, and
must learn something about the order in which the Sovereigns of
England came to the throne, and about the principal Ministers who
in turn directed the government of the country.
It will not be necessary to say very much about these things, for
the history of the last ninety years has depended very little upon what
was done by George IV. or William IV. ; and though it made a great
deal of difference to the country whether it had good or bad Ministers,
it will be best to speak about those Ministers when we come to describe
the particular work in which each of them took a special part.
Still, in order that we may understand the chapters which follow,
it will be well to go very quickly through some of the facts and dates
which ought to be remembered by those who want to follow the history
of the nineteenth century.
When the battle of Waterloo was fought, King George III. was still
on the throne, but for some years past he had be^n a king in name
only. The madness which had overtaken him once or twice in his
reign had now greatly increased, and it had been found necessary to
make his son Regent. For several years before he became king,
George IV. really occupied the place of king under the name of
Regent.
In 1815, therefore, George III. was still king, but his mind had
given way, and his son George exercised the royal power as Regent.
722
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The Prime Minister was the Earl of Liverpool ; Canning was one of
the most important men in the United Kingdom, and the Duke of
Wellington, who had served the country so well, not only as a general
in the field, but as an ambassador charged with the duty of arranging
peace, had perhaps more power and influence than either Lord
Liverpool or Canning.
GEORGE IV.
In 1820 George III. died, and was succeeded by his son, George
Earl of Liverpool
fell ill, and had to
give up his office.
He was succeeded
as Prime Minister
by Canning. In this
year was fought
the battle of Nava-
rino (1827), which
must be mention-
ed, in the first
place, because it is
the only sea-battle
in which England
has taken part
since Trafalgar ;
in the second
place, it is remark-
able because three
great nations
which so often,
both before and
since, have found
themse Ives
enemies, for once
fought side^ by side as friends against a common enemy.
The story of the battle can be shortly told. The Greeks, who had
long been trying to free themselves from the hated rule of the Tttrks,
had risen in insurrection to regain their liberty. The Turks did their
best to put them down with savage cruelty. At last the great Powers
of Europe could allow the Greeks to be oppressed no longer. They
gave notice to both Turks and Greeks that the quarrel must cease, and
that an arrangement must be come to,
GEORGE IV.
CA THO L ic EMA NCIPA 7 -JON— SL A VER Y. 723
The Turks refused to listen to them. A combined fleet of British,
French, and Russian ships was sent to Navarino, on the west coast of
the Morea. A conflict might perhaps have been avoided, but one of
the Turkish ships unwisely fired a shot. This was the signal for a
general action, and after a hard fight the Turkish force was absolutely
destroyed. The independence of Greece was now possible, and the
little kingdom of Greece, with its capital in the ancient and famous
city of Athens, exists to this day.
At the time of the battle, the -Prime Minister of this country was
Lord Goderich, for in the month of August Canning had died. Goderich
however, was not an able enough man for the high office which he
filled, and his ministry only lasted four months. In January, 1828,
he was replaced by the Duke of Wellington as Prime Minister. A very
famous man, Robert Peel, afterwards known as Sir Robert Peel, was
appointed to the office of Home Secretary, a post which he had already
filled seven years earlier under Lord Liverpool.
Catholic Emancipation and Reform— Slavery -
The Factory Act.
"/ believe a substantial measure of reform would elevate and strengthen
the character of our population ; that, in the language of the beautiful
prayer read here,1 it would 'tend to knit together the hearts of all persons
and estates within this Realm. ' I believe it would add to the authority
of the decisions of Parliament; and I feel satisfied it would confer a
lustre, which time can never dim, on that benignant reign under which
we have the happiness to Hue. " — John Bright : Reform Speeches, 1859.
WILLIAM IV.
In 1829 was passed the great Act known as the Act for Catholic
Emancipation. Something more about this Act will be found later on
in this book, but it must be mentioned shortly in its proper place here.
In 1830 George IV. died, and was succeeded by his brother William,
under the title of William IV. ""7)
In the same year the Duke of Wellington lost one of his colleagues
by a sad accident. The accident is memorable because it serves to
remind us of a very important event. In the month of September,
1830, the Duke of Wellington with a large party went down to
Lancashire to witness tlir running of the first trains upon the new
1 In the House cf Commons.
724
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
" Railway " which had just been made between Manchester and Liver-
pool. The famous engine built by George Stephenson, and named " The
Rocket," astonished all men by drawing its train at the rate of thirty
miles an hour. It was a wonderful success. Unluckily, the day was
marked by one misfortune — Mr. Huskisson, who had filled the office
of Secretary for the Colonies under the Duke of Wellington, was
knocked down and
killed. ' This incident
serves as a landmark
in our history to re-
mind us that this was
the time when the first
'railway trains ran in
England ; and was the
real beginning of the
great railway system
which has since spread
all over the United
Kingdom and the
world.
In 1830 the Duke
of Wellington's Minis-
try came to an end.
The reason of its fall
was the refusal of the
Duke to agree to the
plan for a "Reform
Bill" which was pro-
posed to him by Lord
Grey. By the Reform
Bill a great number
of persons, who up to
this time had no right to vote for Members of Parliament, were to
be given the right to vote. The Reform Bill, like the Bill for
Catholic Emancipation, must be mentioned here, but something
more must be said about Parliamentary Reform in another chapter.
Lord Grey now became Prime Minister, and under him were three
very famous men— Lord John Russell, Lord Melbourne, and Lord Palmer-
ston, each of whom in turn became Prime Minister of England. Lord
Grey, having advised the Duke of Wellington to bring in a Reform Bill,
now of course felt bound to follow his own advice and to bring one in
himself. In 1831 the Bill was brought in, but it only passed through
WILLIAM IV.
SLAVERY — THE FACTORY ACT
725
the House of Commons by a majority of one. It was withdrawn, and a
new Parliament summoned. In the new Parliament there was a great
majority in favour of the Bill. It was brought in by Lord John Russell,
and passed by a majority of 136 ; but the House of Lords refused to
pass it.
The refusal caused great disturbance in the country, and in some
places there were
riots, and the feel-
ing against the
House of Lords
was very strong.
At the end of 1831
the Bill was
brought in a third
time, and in 1832
it came before the
House of Lords
again. The Duke
'of Wellington, who
had hitherto op-
posed the Bill,
now consented to
its passage, for he
felt that to refuse
any longer would
be dangerous to
the country. On
the yth Jane, 1832,
the Bill was passed
into law.
One or two very
important things
were done by
the Government of
Lord Grey besides passing the great Reform Bill. In 1833 a famous
Act was passed, by which slavery was for ever put an end to within the
British Dominions. The Slave Trade — that is to say, the trade of
capturing free men in Africa, carrying them across the sea, and selling
them as slaves in British colonies or in the United States — had been
put an end to twenty-six years before, when Fox was Prime Minister.
The Act now passed set free all the slaves belonging to British subjects
in any part of the world.
LORD PAI.MERSTON;
(Photo : Fradelle & Young, Regent Si net, U'.)
726 ffisroRY OF ENGLAND.
In the same year was passed the Factory Act, by which it was made
illegal to employ children under thirteen years of age for more than
eight hours a day, or persons between thirteen and eighteen for more
than twelve hours a day. Since 1833 many other Acts have been
passed shortening the hours of work, but this one deserves to be
remembered because it was the first.
In 1834 Lord Grey's Ministry came to an end, and Lord Melbourne
became Prime Minister, but only for a very short time, for in the same
year Sir Robert Peel succeeded him. Peel dissolved Parliament, hoping
to get a majority of Conservatives to support him. After the Reform
Bill the Conservative party had for a time almost vanished from the
House of Commons. What was then called the Liberal party numbered
486 members, while the Conservatives had only 172 members. In the
new Parliament of 1835 many more Conservatives were returned, but
not enough to give Peel a majority. He resigned in April, and Lord
Melbourne again became Prime Minister.
In June, 1837, King William IV. died, and was succeeded by his
niece the Princess Victoria, (1:3) daughter of his younger brother
Edward.11010 Duke of Kent, who had died in 1820.
727
CHAPTER LXXIII.
THE DAYS OF QUEEN VICTORIA.
1837-1852.
FAMOUS PERSONS WHO LIVED IN THE REIGN OF
QUEEN VICTORIA;
Victoria. Duchess of Kent, mother of Quetn
Victoria, d. 1861.
George William, Duke of Cambridge,
b. 1819, cousin to the Queen.
Mary Adelaide, cousin to Queen Victoria,
b. 1833, m. the Duke of Teck, mother
of the Duchess of York, d. 1897.
LOUiS Philippe (Orleans), King of France,
abdicated 1848, d. an exile in England,
1850.
Second French Republic :—
Charles LOUiS Napoleon, elected Presi-
dent 1848.
Empire Restored:—
Napoleon III. (Charles Louis Napoleon)
elected Emperor 1852, deposed 1870,
d. in England 1873.
Eugenie-Marie, wife of Napoleon
Napoleon, Prince Imperial,
«on of above, b. 1856, d. 1879.
Third French Republic. Presidents of
the French Republic:—
Louis Adolphe Thiers, b. 1797, elected
1871, resigned 1873, d. 1877.
Marshal M. E. MacMahon, b. 1808,
elected 1873, resigned 1879, d. 1893.
Franpois Paul Jules Gre>y, b.
1813, elected 1879, resigned 1887, d.
1891.
Marie Francois Sadi Carnot, b. 1837,
elected 1887, assassinated 1894.
J. P. Casimir-Pe'rier, b. 1847, elected
1804, resigned 1895.
F. Felix Faure, b. 1841, elected 1895, d.
1899.
Emile LOUbet, b. 1838, elected
1899.
Ferdinand, Emperor of Austria, abdicated
r848.
Francis Joseph (nephew of Ferdinanr),
Emperor of Austria, became also King
of Hungary 1867.
Frederick William III., King of Prussia,
Frederick1 William IV., King of Prussia,
d. 1861.
William I., King of Prussia, proclaimed
German tmperor 1871, d. 1888.
Frederick III., King of Prussia and German
Emperor d. 1888.
William II., King of Prussia and German
Emptror.
[, Quren of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, Empr« ss of
India, only child of Edward, Duke of
Kent, fourth son of George III., b.
1819, became Cjueen 1837, d. 19°I- ;
Albert, Duke of Saxe-Coburg, Prince Consort,
and husband of Queen Victoria, b.
1819, m. 1840, d. 1861.
Victoria Adelaide, Princess Royal, b.
1840. m. 1858 Prince Frederick William
of Prussia, afterwards German Em-
peror.
Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, b.
1841, m. Princess Alexandra of Den-
mark 1863. Afterwards King.
Children of the Prince and Prin-
cess of Wales :—
Albert Victor, Duke of Clarenc*
and Avondale, b. 1864, d. 1892.
George, Duke cV York, b. 1865, m.
Princess Victoria Mary (May)
of Teck 1893.
Children of the Duke of
York :—
Edward, b. 23rd June, 1894.
Albert, b. i4th December, 1895.
Victoria Alexandra Alice
Mary, b. 251*1 April, 1897.
Louise Victoria, b. 1867, m. Duke
of Fife 1889.
Victoria Alexandra, b. 1868.
Maude, b. 1869, m. Prince Charks of
Denmark, 1896.
Alexander John, b. 1871, d. 1871.
Alice, b. 1843, m. Prince Louis of Hesse
1862, d. 1^878.
Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, Duke of
Saxe-Coburg, b. 1844, m. Grand
Duchess Marie of Russia 1874, d. 1900.
Helena, b. 1846, m. Prince Christian of
Schleswig-Holstein 1866.
Louise, b. 1848, m. the Marquis of Lome,
eldest son of the Duke of Argyle 1871.
Arthur, Duke of Connaught, b. 1850,
m. Princess Louise Margaret of
Prussia 1879.
Leopold, Duke of Albany, b. 1853, m.
Princess Helen of Waldeck Pyrmont,
1882, d. 1884.
Beatrice, b. 1857, m. Prince Henry of
Battenberg 1885 (d. 1896).
Adelaide, wife of William IV. (Queen
Dowager), d. 1849.
728
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Isabella II., Queen of Spain, abdicated 1870.
Amadeo L, King of Spain, abdicated 1873.
Alfonso XII., King of Spain, d. 1885.
Queen Christina, widow of Alfonso XII.,
elected Regent 1885.
AlfOnSO XIII., b. 1886, became King of Spain
1886 (Queen Christina Regent during
Alfonso's minority, i.e. until 1902).
Nicholas I., Emperor of Russia, d. 1855.
Alexander II., Emperor of Russia, assassi-
nated 1881.
Alexander III., Emperor of Russia, d. 1894.
Nicholas II., Emperor of Russia 1894.
Frederick VI.; King of Denmark, d, 1839.
Christian VUL, King of Denmark, d. 1848.
Frederick VII, King of Denmark, d. 1863.
Christian IX., King of Denmark, b. 1818.
Charles XIV., King of Sweden and Norway,
d. 1844.
Oscar L, King of Sweden and Norway,
d. 1859.
Charles XV., King of Sweden and Norway,
d. 1872.
Oscar II., King of Sweden and Norway,
b. 1 829.
Victor Emmanuel II., King of Sardinia 1849,
became first King of Italy i86i,d. 1878.
Humbert, King of Italy, b. 1844, assassinated
1900.
Victor Emmanuel III., King of Italy.
Gregory XVI., Pope. d. 1846.
Pius IX., Pope, d. 1878.
Leo XIII. , Pope. b. 1 8 10.
Presidents of the United States :—
Martin Van Buren, 1837-1841.
General William H. Harrison, 1841,
d. 1841.
John Tyler, 1841-1845.
James Knox Polk, 1845-1849.
General Zachary Taylor, 1849, d- l85c-
Millard Fillmore, 1850-1853.
General Franklin Pierce, 1853-1857.
James Buchanan, 18=7-1861.
Abraham Lincoln, *86t, assassinated
1865.
Andrew Johnson, 1865-1869.
General Ulysses S. Grant, 1869-1873,
1873-1877.
Rutherford B. Hayes, 1877-1881.
General J. Abraham Garneld, i88t,
assassinated 1881.
Chester A. Arthur, 1881-1885.
Grover Cleveland, 1885-1889.
General Benjamin Harrison, 1889-
1893.
Orover Cleveland. 1803-1806.
William McKinley, 1896-1901, assassi-
nated 1901.
Theodore Roosevelt, 1901.
Great Writers from 1837 to the present day-
William Wordsworth, b. i77o, d. 1850.
Robert Southey, b. 1774, d. 1843.
Thomas Campbell, b. i777, d. 1844.
Henry Hallam (Historian), b. 1777, d.
1859.
Thomas Moore, b. 1779, d. 1852.
Thomas Hood, b. i798, d. 1845.
Washington Irving (American), b. 1783,
d. 1859.
James H. Leigh Hunt, b. 1784, d. 1859.
James Fenimore Cooper, b. 1789, d.
1851.
Captain F. Marryat, b. 1792, d. 1848.
John Keble, b 1792, d. 1866.
Thomas Carlyle, b. 1795, d. 1881.
Thomas Babington, Lord Macau-
lay, b. 1800, d. 1859.
Jolm Henry, Cardinal Newman,
b. 1801, d. 1890.
Harriet Martineau. b. 1802, d. 1876.
Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton, b. 1805,
d. 1873.
W. Harrison Ainsworth, b. 1805,
d. 1882.
Charles Lever, b. 1806, d. 1872.
John Stuart Mill, b. 1806, b. 1873.
Mrs. E. B. Browning, b. 1806, d. 1861.
H. W. Longfellow, b. 1807, d. 1882.
Charles Darwin, b 1809, d. 1882.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, b. 1809, d. 1892.
W. M. Thackeray, b. 1811, d. 1863.
Charles Dickens, b. 1812, d. 1870.
Robert Browning, b. 1812, d. 1889.
Charlotte Bronte, b. 1816, d. 18=5.
J. A. Froude, b. 1818, d. 1894.
Charles Kingsley, b. 1810, d. 1875.
"George tliOt" (Mrs. G. H. Lewes).
b. 1819, d. ib8o.
John Ruskin, b. 1819.
Matthew Arnold, b. 1822, d. 1888.
Alfred Austin, Poet Laureate, b. 1835.
A C. Swinburne, b. 1837.
Chief Miaisters of Queen Victoria :—
William,Viscount Melbourne, d. i 48.
Sir Robert Peel, d. 1850.
John, Earl Russell, d. 1878.
Edward, Earl of Derby, d. 1869.
George Gordon, Earl of Aberdeen,
d. 1860.
Henry Temple, Viscount Palmer
ston, d. it 65.
Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beacons-
field, d. 1881.
William Ewart Gladstone, d. 1898.
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Marquis of
Salisbury, b. 1830.
Archibald Primrose, Earl of Rose-
bery, b. 1847.
Henry, Lord Brougham, d. 1868.
Richard Cobden, d. 1865.
W. E. Forster, d. 1886.
John Bright, d. 1889.
Sir Rowland Hill, d. 1879.
Daniel O'Connell. d. 1847.
Charles S. Parnell, d. 1891.
Great Painters :—
J. M. W. Turner (English), d. 1851.
Sir Edwin Landseer (English), d. 1873.
Great Musicians:—
F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (German),
d. 1848.
W. R. Wagner (German), d. 1883.
Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington,
d. 1852.
Sir Charles Napier, d. 1853.
Sir James Outram, d. 1863.
Viscount Hugh Gough, d. 1869.
Sir Henry Havelock, d. 1857.
EVENTS IN QUEEN VICTORIA'S REIGN.
729
Sir Henry Lawrence, d. 1857.
Colin Campbell, Lord Clyde, d. 1863.
General Charles G. Gordon, killed at
Khartoum 1885.
Robert, Baron Napier of Magdala, d.
1890.
George Stephenson, d. 1848.
Captain John H. Speke (explorer of the
Nile), d. 1864.
Captain James A. Grant (explorer of the
Nile), d. 1892.
David Livingstone, d. 1873.
Mrs. Elizabeth Fry, d. 1845.
Sir T. Fowell Buxton, d. 1845.
Sir John F. HersChel (Astronomer), d.
1871.
Sir Richard Owen (Physician), d. 1892.
Professor T. H. Huxley, d. 1895.
PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA.
Lord Derby resigns, and is succeeded
by Lord Palmerston.
Beginning of the Volunteer movement
Death of the Prince Consort.
Commencement of the Civil War in the
United States.
.Cotton famine in Lancashire.
Death of Lord Palmerston ; Lord
Russell Prime Minister.
Lord Derby Prime Minister.
Second Reform Bill passed.
Fenian outbreak suppressed.
Parliamentary Reform Bill passed.
Mr. Disraeli Prime Minister.
Mr. Gladstone succeeds Mr. Disraeli.
Education Act passed.
War between France and Germany.
Ballot Act passed.
Mr. Disraeli succeeds Mr. Gladstone
Queen Victoria takes the title of
" Empress of India."
Is proclaimed Empress a? Delhi.
War between Russia and Turkey.
Treaty of Berlin.
Zulu War.
Mr. Gladstone Prime Minister.
Abandonment of the Transvaal.
Death of Lord Beaconsfield.
Bombardment of Alexandria.
Abandonment of General Gordon.
Reform Bill passed.
Lord Salisbury Prime Minister.
Defeat of Mr. Gladstone on the ques-
tion of Home Rule for Ireland.
Jubilee of Queen Victoria.
Local Government (County Councils)
Act passed.
Elementary Education made free.
Mr. Gladstone Prime Minister.
Local Governm=nt (Paiish Council*)
Act pissed.
Lord Rosebery Prime Minister.
Lord Salisbury Prime Minister.
War between Turkey and Greece.
Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.
Death of Mr. W. E. Gladstone.
Spanish-American War.
Khartoum re-taken.
Boers declare War.
Lord Salisbury again Prime Minister.
Jan. i, Commonwealth of Australia
established.
Jan. 22, Death of Queen Victoria.
Accession of Edward VII.
1837. Accession of Queen Victoria ( June 2oth). | 1859.
Insurrection in Canada defeated.
First electric telegraph erected.
1839. War with China. 1861.
The Chartist Agitation.
1840. Marriage of Queen Victoria to Prince
Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha. 1861-4
Penny Postage introduced. 1865.
1841. Birth of Albert Edward, Prince of
Wales. 1866.
Resignation of Lord Melbourne. Sir
Robert Peel succeeds. 1867.
1842. Massacre of British troops in Afghanis-
tan. _ 1868.
Peace with China.
1843. Agitation in Ireland for the repeal of 1870.
the Union, in England for abolition
of Corn Laws. 1872.
1845 Sikh War. 1874.
Potato famine and distress in Ireland. 1876.
/846, End of Sikh War.
Repeal of the Corn Laws.
1848. Chartist demonstration at Kennington.
Suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act 1878.
in Ireland.
Abdication of Louis Philippe. A 1880.
Republic proclaimed.
Revolutionary riots in France. 11.
Death of Lord Melbourne. 1882.
1849. Battle of Chilianwallah.
Annexation of the Punjaub.
The Queen visits Ireland.
1850. Death of Sir Robert Peel. 1886.
1851. Lord Russell resigns, but resumes office.
1852 Lord Derby succeeds Lord Russell.
Death of the Duke of Wellington.
Coalition Ministry formed containing
Lords Aberdeen, Russell, and Palmer- 1891.
ston. ! 1892.
Louis Napoleon makes himself Emperor | 1894.
of the French.
1854. Commencement of the Crimean War.
Battles of the Alrna and Inkermann. 1895.
1855. Resignation of Lord Aberdeen. Lord 1897.
Palmerston succeeds.
Capture of Sebastopol : end of Crimean
War.
1856. Treaty of Paris.
War with China and with Persia. 1899.
1857. The Indian Mutiny begins. 1900.
1858. Resignation of Lord Palmerston. Lord 1901.
Derby succeeds.
Suppression of the Indian Mutiny ; the
Queen proclaimed Sovereign of India.
730 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Canada— The Chartists.
" The noble and illustrious lady who sits upon the throne— she whose
gentle hand wields the sceptre over that wide Empire of which we are
the heart and the centre." — John Bright, 1866.
WE now come to the beginning of a time which seems more familiar
to us than any that has gone before — namely, the reign of Queen
Victoria. In June, 1837,
William IV. died. He left
no children, and the next heir
to the throne was his niece,
the Princess Victoria, (m) daugh-
ter of his younger brother, the
Duke of Kent. On the 28th
day of June, 1838, Queen
Victoria was crowned in
splendid state, seated in the
famous and ancient chair used
by the Sovereigns of England,
and with which is enclosed
the " Stone of Destiny " on
,^^^^ which the monarchs of Scot-
land took their seat many
hundred years ago. She was
just eighteen when she became
QUEEN VICTORIA. Queen.
(From the painting by \V. C. A'asr, A.R.A.) TheyOUngQueensOOnfound
that matters of great and high
importance were being discussed at her Council Board. A difficulty
had arisen in the great colony of Canada, where bad government and
an unsuitable Constitution had aroused great discontent, and actually
led to an armed rebellion. Happily, a wise statesman, Lord Durham,
was sent out to restore order, and by following the advice he gave,
the British Government was enabled to arrange matters peaceably.
An Act of Parliament was passed in 1840, which settled for the future
what was to be the position of the mother country and the colony.
The two divisions of Canada known as Upper and Lower Canada were
united under one Parliament.
THE CHARTISTS.
In 1840 Queen Victoria was married to her cousin, Prince Albert m"
of Saxe-Coburg, a man of noble character and of great learning and
accomplishments. His death in 1861 was a deep and lasting sorrow
to the Queen.
In the years 1839 and 1840 there were serious disturbances in
England, which at one time caused great alarm. These disturbances
arose from the action of the so-called Chartists. The Chartists were
men who had drawn up a list of political changes which they declared
ought to be made at once, and
which they said were absolutely
necessary for the good of the
country. There were six things
which they demanded, and
these were written down in a
declaration, or Charter, and
were called the six points of
the Charter. The six points
were as follows: —
(1) Annual Parliaments -
that is to say, that
there should be a fresh
Parliament elected
every year.
(2) Manhood Suffrage— that
is to say, that every
grown-up man in the
country should have
the right to vote for
a Member of Parlia-
ment.
(3) Vote by Ballot -that is
to say, that voting for Members of Parliament should be
secret, in order that the voters might be free to vote as they
pleased without interference.
(4) Equal Electoral Districts— that is to say, that the country should
be cut up into a number of districts or " Constituencies," all
having the same number of inhabitants, rind that each of
these districts should send one Member to Parliament.
(5) The Abolition of a Property Qualification— that is to say, that
any man might be elected a Member of Parliament, whether
he owned any property or not.
(6) That all Members of Parliament should be paid.
ALBERT, PRINCE CONSORT.
(From the painting by W. C. Xcss, A.R.A.)
732 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Some of the points of the Charter have since been agreed to and
have become law. Members of Parliament are now elected by ballot,
and they need not have any property. The districts which send Members
to Parliament, though they are not all of exactly the same size, are
much more nearly equal than they used to be. There are those who
still hope that the other three points of the Charter may some day
become law also.
At the same time, however, those who were in favour of the Charter
threatened to use great violence if they did not get their way at once.
A great petition to Parliament was drawn up, and an enormous crowd,
led by Feargus O'Connor and Ernest Jones, tried to bring it before Parlia-
ment. But Parliament would not receive the petition, which it declared
was sent to it as a threat, and refused to listen to any claim that was
supported by violence and force. The refusal of Parliament led to
serious rioting in some places, and at Newport, in Monmouthshire3
soldiers had to be called out to fire upon the people.
The Anti-Corn-Law League— The Potato Famine.
THE FOUR "DEARS."
"Dear Sugar, dear Tea, and dear Corn,
Conspired with dear Representation
To laugh worth and honour to scorn,
And beggar the whole British nation."
Ebenezer Elliott : " Corn Law Songs."
We now come to a very important time in our history, for it was in
the year 1838 that the movement first began against the laws by which
corn was taxed on being imported into this country. In that year the
Anti-Corn-Law League, the object of which was to do away with the
taxes on corn, was formed in Manchester. The chief leaders of the
Anti-Corn-Law League were Richard Cobden, John Bright, and Charles
Villiers. These three men went about the country speaking at great
meetings, and explaining to the people, in eloquent and clear speeches,
how much harm was done to the country by taxing the food of the
people.
As was easily to be expected, all those who were owners of land
were against the change proposed by the Anti-Corn-Law League.
They knew that so long as the corn from abroad was taxed, the price
of English corn grown upon their own land would be high. Parliament,
734
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
however, could not be persuaded to do away with the corn taxes.
Lord Melbourne resigned his office in 1841, and Sir Robert Peel, who
followed him as Prime Minister, at first refused to take away the
taxes on corn. He did, however, take away some taxes upon goods
brought into this country, for at that time duties had to be paid upon
almost everything that was brought in from abroad.
Some people prophesied that the taking off the duties would ruin
the country ; but
this did not prove
to be the case,
for, on the con-
trary, trade im-
proved, and four
years later (1845)
Sir Robert Peel
again took off a
very large num-
ber of duties.
The owners of
the land and the
farmers now be-
gan to be afraid
that Peel would
end by taking off
all the taxes upon
corn, and, as it
turned out, their
fears were well
founded. They
began to distrust
Peel, and under
the leadership of
Benjamin Disraeli,
their spokesman,
then a young man
who had just entered Parliament, made violent attacks upon the
Prime Minister in the House of Commons.
But the readiness of Peel to do away with so many duties had done
much rb encourage the Anti-Corn-Law League, and day by day a
greater number of people throughout the country were led to believe
in what the Anti-Corn-Law leaders said. Their task soon became
easier, for there was great distress in man}' parts of England, and
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
(From the portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence.}
THE AKTI- CORN- LA \v I. EA c i v: — TIIK Po TA TO FA MINE. 735
men were actually starving while the price of bread was kept high by
the taxes upon corn. Bad as things were in England, they were much
worse in Ireland. In that part of the United Kingdom the majority
of the people lived then, as, indeed, they do now, upon potatoes, an
uncertain crop, and one which frequently suffers from disease.
In the year 1845 the Potato blight fell upon Ireland. Thousands
of acres of potatoes were suddenly and utterly destroyed, and in a
few weeks Ireland was suffering all the miseries of a great famine.
All that could be done was done. A very large amount was
spent in relieving the distress. Parliament voted £10,000,000, and
very large sums were collected in the form of private charity, to save
the starving people ; but all that could be dpne was far too little.
Death and disease were everywhere triumphant. Thousands died of
actual starvation, or of disease arising from want of food, or from
bad food. Greater still was the number of those who were forced
to leave their country, which could no longer support them, and to
seek a home across the Atlantic, in Canada or in the United States.
For miles the countryside was deserted, and ruined houses alone
remained to mark where populous villages had been.
In 1841 the population of Ireland was 8,175,124. In 1851 it had
sunk to 6,515,794. The want of cheap food in Ireland was plainly
even greater than the want of cheap food in England, and at last
Sir Robert Peel could no longer refuse to do what he believed to be
right and necessary.
At the end of the year 1845 he declared himself in favour of
" repealing the Corn Laws" that is to say, doing away with the taxes
on corn altogether. But though Peel had changed his mind, the
other members of his Government were still opposed to the repeal,
and Peel was compelled to resign his office; but no one could be
found to take his place, and he came back again, supported this
time by the Whigs, instead of, as before, by the Tories.
In 1846 a Bill was brought in to do away with the taxes on corn.
It passed through both the House of Commons and the House of
Lords, and became the law of the land. Within a few years' time all
taxes upon bread in any shape were taken away, corn came in freely
from abroad, and the price of bread fell lower and lower.
There can be no doubt that the change was a very fortunate one
for the greater number of the people of this country, who were able
to live better and more cheaply than ever before. At the same time,
it must not be forgotten that taking away the taxes on corn was
certain in the long run to injure British farmers, who relied upon
the sale of their wheat for their profits. In our own day, when wheat
736 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
can be grown very cheaply in America, in Russia, in Egypt, and in
India, and can be brought swiftly and cheaply across the sea to our
markets, it is all but impossible for British farmers to grow wheat
and sell it at a profit.
Troubles in the Year " Forty-Eight."
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall
one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." — Burke:
" Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents."
Although Peel had agreed with Lord Russell and the Whigs for
one purpose — that of repealing the Corn Laws— the agreement did
not last long. A difference arose between Peel's party and that of
Lord Russell, and in 1846 Peel resigned his office and Lord John Russell
became Prime Minister.
In 1848, two years after the repeal of the Corn Laws, the Chartists,
about whom we have already read, once more disturbed the country.
They took advantage of the fact that all over Europe, especially in
France, risings had taken place in which the people had attacked
the Government. In France there had been a revolution, which had
ended in King Louis Philippe being driven from his throne and a
Republic being set up.
Nearer home, too, there had been an outbreak. In Ireland a
party, called "The Young Ireland Party," led by Smith O'Brien and
others, had risen in arms against the Government, and it had been
found necessary to call on the police to put them down. Feargus
O'Connor, who was still the principal leader of the Chartists, thought
that this was a good time to try to gain his ends by violence in
England itself. An enormous petition was signed by those who were
in favour of the Charter, and nearly 6,000,000 names appeared upon
it. It was afterwards found out, however, that many thousands of
these were sham names, or names which had been put down without
the leave of those to whom they belonged.
The Chartists were ordered to assemble in their thousands on
Kennington Common, now called Kennington Park, and near which
is the great cricket ground, known as " Kennington Oval." The plan
was to march in a body to Westminster, to present the Petition, and
overawe Parliament by a great show of force. There is, however,
TROUBLES IN THE YEAR " FORTY-EIGHT? 737
an Act of Parliament which forbids large crowds to assemble or
meetings to be held close to Westminster while Parliament is sitting.
This is a wise and just law, for it is right that the House of Commons,
which has been elected by the people to do the work of the country,
should always be able to carry on its debates without the fear of
interruption or the threat of violence.
The Government, therefore, forbade the great Chartist procession
to come to Westminster. It is one thing, however, to forbid a great
body of determined men to do a thing; it is another to prevent
them doing it if they have a mind. Clearly, if force were to be used on
one side, force would have to be used on the other. A number of
soldiers were brought into London under the orders of the Duke of
Wellington, and placed in houses and courtyards, where they were out
of sight, but where they would be useful if they were wanted. It was a
good thing to have the soldiers in case of great need, but it is always a
pity to call upon armed men to fire upon their fellow-citizens, unless it
be absolutely necessary for the safety of the State. The Government,
therefore, did a wise thing when they called upon all good citizens who
were opposed to violence, and who wished to see the laws of the country
made or altered in a lawful way by Parliament, to come forward and
resist the Chartists.
A call was made and was soon answered. No less than 200,000
citizens enlisted as "special constables.'" The Chartists were wise
enough to see that against such a force as this they were powerless. The
great procession which was to frighten Parliament broke up and never
reached Westminster, and the great Petition was finally driven down to
Westminster in a four-wheeled cab, where it was examined and found to
bear not 6,000,000 signatures, but less than 2,000 that were genuine.
Thus ended the Chartist movement. It has proved a useful lesson,
because it has shown two things. In the first place, it has shown that
in our country changes in the law, if they be wise and reasonable in
themselves, will in time be made in a regular and lawful way by
Parliament. In the second place, it has shown that the people of
England are content to leave the duty of making or altering laws to the
free Parliament which they themselves have elected, and that they will
not put up with any attempt to change our laws by force and violence.
738 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
CHAPTER LXXIV.
THE END OF THE GREAT PEACE AND THE STORY OF
OUR OWN TIMES.
1852-1901.
The Death of the Great Duke.
"Bury the great Duke
With an Empire's lamentation,
Let us bury the great Dukt
To the noise of the mourning of a mighty nation.
"Mourn for the man of long-enduring blood,
The statesman-warrior, moderate, resolute,
Whole in himself, the common good.
"Great in council and great in war,
Foremost captain of his time,
Rich in saving common-sense,
And, as the greatest only are,
In his simplicity sublime." — Tennyson.
IN the year 1851 an event had taken place in France which must be
mentioned here, because it had much to do with English history during
the next few years. In December, 1851, Louis Napoleon, the nephew of
Napoleon Buonaparte, had succeeded in making himself " President " of
the French Republic. To do this he had used great violence, causing
the soldiers who obeyed him to shoot down or imprison those who
opposed him, and who still wished France to remain a Republic. This
violence, however, was altogether successful at the time, and in the
very next year, 1852, Louis Napoleon persuaded the French people to
declare him Emperor of the French under the title of Napoleon III.
It was in this year, 1852, that Lord Russell's Ministry came to an
end. It was succeeded by a Conservative Ministry, under the Earl of
Derby, which, however, only lasted a few months. In the same year the
Duke of Wellington died, mourned by the whole people, who, though they
had sometimes disagreed with what he had done as Prime Minister,
remembered that he was the man who had saved the country in its
time of danger, and who throughout the whole of his long life
THE DEATH OF THE GREAT DUKE.
739
had always done his best to serve the nation faithfully and honour-
ably. He was buried with great pomp in the cathedral of St. Paul,
where his stately monument may still be seen. A great poet has
written a noble poem upon the death of the " Iron Duke." The whole
poem should be read, but there is room here for a few lines only, which
have been quoted at the beginning of this chapter and on page 709.
THE WELLINGTON MEMORIAL IN ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL.
On the fall of Lord Derby's Ministry in 1852 Lord Aberdeen became
Prime Minister. Mr. Gladstone, who had held other important offices
already, and had become one of the foremost members of the House of
Commons, became Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Ministry of
Lord Aberdeen must be remembered, because it brought with it the
end of that long period of peace which Britain had enjoyed for forty
years. It was in 1854 tnat the Crimean War began. In this war
Great Britain, France, Sardinia, and Turkey joined together against Russia.
The actual excuse for beginning the war is not now very important.
The four allied nations really entered into it for very different reasons.
Turkey fought against Russia because the Turks and Russians had
long been enemies, and the Turks knew that the Russians would drive
740 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
them out of Constantinople if they could get a chance. Great Britain
fought because it was feared in this country that the defeat of Turkey
by Russia would make Russia all-powerful in the east of Europe, and
would injure British interests in the Mediterranean and in India. It
was thought in those days that Turkey might be made strong enough
to keep Russia in check.
France fought chiefly because the Emperor Napoleon, who had won
his throne by violence, was afraid of losing it, and thought that by
making war in alliance with Great Britain he would turn the thoughts
of his people to warlike matters, and would lead them to forget their
plots against himself. Sardinia fought because the clever Minister of
the King of Sardinia, Count Cavour, wished to show that Sardinia had
really got an army which could fight. He also hoped that by winning
the support of Great Britain and France he would make powerful
friends, who would some day help to make his master King of Italy
instead of King of Sardinia. The wise Cavour was not disappointed.
Victor Emmanuel, the son of Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, was pro-
claimed King of Italy in 1861, and in 1870 the King of Italy entered the
palace at. Rome as the Sovereign of a united Italian nation.
The Crimean War.
' Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blander'd ;
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die."
Tennyson : " Charge of the Light Brigade."
The story of the war is a long history of mismanagement, suffering,
and loss. The allied armies were landed on the Peninsula of the Crimea,
in the Black Sea, and a battle was fought on the River Alma, September
2oth, 1854, in which the allies were victorious. The town of Sebastopol
lay open and might probably have been taken the next day, but an
unwise delay enabled the Russians to fortify the place, and it was
made so strong that a regular siege had to be undertaken. The siege
lasted eleven months, and during its progress fierce fighting took place
under the walls of the fortress. At Balaclava the famous charges of the
Heavy and Light Cavalry Brigades took place ; the Light Cavalry
Brigade of 600 men being nearly destroyed by the fire of the Russians.
74 2 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
On the 5th November was fought the battle of Inker-man, in which
some 8,000 British Infantry, fighting in the fog without support and
without the hope of help, kept at bay 40,000 Russians. Inkerman has
well, been called "the soldiers' battle," for never did success depend
more upon the valour of the officers and men who fought, and less
upon the wisdom and foresight of those who directed the army.
While fighting was going on in the Crimea a fleet was sent up the
Baltic, but did little. The big ships drew too much water to be able
to move freely in the shallow waters of the Baltic, but for the time
the whole of the Russian trade was stopped. An attack upon
the Russian possessions in the Pacific by a British squadron was
defeated.
Meanwhile the terrible Crimean winter closed in upon the army in
front of Sebastopol. The sufferings of the troops from the cold were
terrible, and they were made worse by the mismanagement of the
Government at home, which had failed to provide the stores and
comforts which were required. The French, whose army was much
larger than our own, suffered nearly as much as did the British. On
both sides the losses were terrible, but the losses in battle were nothing
compared to those which were due to cold, starvation, and disease.
At last, at the close of 1855, this unhappy war drew to an end.
After a terrific bombardment, an assault upon Sebastopol was ordered.
It was only partially successful. The French took the Malakoff Tower,
the British were defeated in their assault upon the fortification called
the Eedan. But the taking of the Malakoff had made the further
defence of Sebastopol impossible, and the Russians at last surrendered.
In March, 1856, peace was made. The Russians promised never to
bring warships upon the Black Sea, and never to fortify Sebastopol.
Both promises have long ago been broken.
It is impossible to look back upon this unhappy war with any
feeling of satisfaction. It is said that the losses of the allies amounted
in all to no less than 250,000 men, while those of the Russians have
been placed as high as 750,000. One thing alone about this war can
be remembered with satisfaction, and that is the splendid bravery
which was shown by the soldiers and sailors who fought in those fierce
battles, and who endured, without a murmur, the hardships and misery
of the long siege and of the cruel winter, and the mismanagement of a
blundering and unprepared Government.
743
The Conquest of Scinde and the Indian Mutiny,
"The heroes of whom I have written are only representative men;
and rightly considered, it is the glory of the Indian Services, not that they
have sent forth a few great, but that they diffused over the country so
many good, public officers, eager to do their duty though not in the front
rank." — Kaye : "Lives of Indian Officers."
Scarcely had the festivities which were held to welcome the return-
ing heroes of the Crimea come to an end, when a fresh call was made
upon our army to meet with another and a more terrible danger. This
time it was from India that the call came, and it was an urgent
summons for help from our own kinsmen in the East.
Ever since the days of Clive the power of Britain in India had
been growing greater and greater. In 1843 the great territory known
as Scinde, which lies in the north-west of India, between the Punjaub
and Baluchistan, was added to the British dominions. Between 1845
and 1849 were fought the two Sikh wars. In 1845 Sir Hugh Gough
succeeded in defeating the Sikhs, who had crossed the river Sutlej
and invaded our territory, at the battles of Ferozeshah and Mudki. In
the next year Sir Harry Smith was successful in winning the battle of
Aliwal, and Gough that of Sobraon. Beaten for a time, the Sikhs were
compelled to give up part of their territory. But never had British
troops had to fight against a braver enemy in India, and even now the
struggle was not ended ; indeed, it seemed for a time as though the
victory so hardly gained would be lost again.
The Second Sikh War broke out in 1848, and Sir Hugh Gough1 was
almost defeated in a fierce battle at Chilianwallah. One last battle
restored the fortune of the war, and by gaining a complete victory
at Gujerat, Gough made the British masters of the whole great Province
of the Punjaub, or district of the " Five Rivers," of which Lahore is
the capital.2
The Sikhs, who had fought so splendidly 'against us as our enemies,
have ever since been among the most loyal subjects of the Sovereign,
1 Sir Hugh Gough was made Viscount Gough at the close of the second Sikh war.
2 The five rivers of the Punjaub aie the Indus, the Sutlej, the Jhelum, the Chenab, and the
Ravi.
744 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
and have shown, when fighting under British officers, the same splendid
bravery and endurance that they showed when fighting against us.
It was fortunate that we had good friends on our side in India
at this time, for a great peril was hanging over the British Government,
and all those who were friends of British rule in India. It was in the
year 1857 that the terrible Indian Mutiny broke out. This was a mutiny
among the regiments of Sepoy, or Hindoo, soldiers, who were at that
time in the service of the East India Company. For a long time
the outbreak had been plotted and planned, but the British officers
refused to believe that the soldiers whom they had commanded so
long were on the point of betraying them. Such, however, was
the case.
It is said that the immediate cause of the mutiny was the serving
out to the Hindoo troops of cartridges which were believed to be
greased with cow's fat. Among the Hindoos the cow is held to be
a sacred animal, and on no account will a Hindoo who wishes to
be true to his religion either kill a cow or allow the meat of cow or
bullock to pass his lips. At that time it was necessary to bite off
the top of a cartridge before putting its contents into a gun, and
thus the lips of the soldiers came in contact with the fat which their
religion forbade them to touch. It seems likely, however, that the
serving out of the cartridges was rather an excuse for the mutiny
than its cause. The plan had been formed long before.
Early in 1857 a native regiment broke out into open mutiny at
Meerut, and soon in all parts of India other regiments followed the
example, murdered their officers, and marched to Delhi. Taken by
surprise, the Government was at first powerless to protect the lives
of English men and women, or to relieve the forts in which those
who had been successful in escaping had taken refuge, and were
defending themselves.
745
Cawnpore— Lueknow— Delhi.
" Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, and of the Colonies and Dependencies thereof in Europe, Asia,
Africa, America, and Australasia, Queen, Defender of the Faith,
" WHEREAS for divers weighty reasons, we have resolved, by and with
the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons
in Parliament assembled, to take upon ourselves the government of the
territories in India, heretofore administered in trust for us by the Honour-
able East India Company : t
"Now, therefore, we do by these presents notify and declare that, by the
advice and consent aforesaid, we have taken upon ourselves the said
government, and we hereby call upon all our subjects within the said
territories to be faithful and to bear due allegiance to us, our heirs, our
successors, and to submit themselves to the authority of those whom we
may hereafter from time to time see fit to appoint to administer the
government of our said territories, in our name and on our behalf."— From
Queen Victoria's Proclamation to the People of India, 1859.
The story of what followed must always be read with deep interest
by every English man and woman. It is a story of terrible suffering,
of danger, and of death ; but it is made bright and splendid by the
many instances which it contains of the heroism and the noble
courage of men and women of our race. Cut off from all help and
from all news of their friends, the small British garrison, aided by
bodies of faithful natives, defended themselves, sometimes with no
better protection than the walls of an ordinary house, against over-
whelming numbers. Very few lost heart; all believed that their
countrymen would come to their aid if it were possible, and that, if it
were not possible, it was their duty to keep the flag flying to the last,
and to die at their posts with their faces to the enemy. In some
cases the bravest defence was of no avail, and help came too late.
The British garrison at Cawnpore, after having held out for twenty-
one days, surrendered to the rebel leader, Nana Sahib, when food and
ammunition were both exhausted, and after they had received a
promise that their lives should be spared. The promise was shamefully
broken. Men and women alike were massacred in cold blood, and the
bodies thrown into a well ; four persons only escaped to tell the story
of Cawnpore.
A little to the north-east of Cawnpore lies the great city of Lueknow,
746 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
and here, too, a British garrison, composed of a few British and some
faithful native troops, was shut up with a number of women and
children in the Government building, or " Residency," of Lucknow. In
command was Sir Henry Lawrence, one of the wisest and best of the
many wise and good men who have left this country to take part
in the government of India.
Early in the siege Lawrence was struck by a cannon-ball and
mortally wounded. The command of the little garrison fell to
Brigadier Inglis, and what seemed a hopeless struggle went on. The
only hope was the arrival of help from outside. At last that help
came, when on the eighty-eighth day of the siege Sir Henry Havelock,
with a small force, fought his way into the Residency. But even now
the danger was as great as ever, for the garrison, with the help of
the new soldiers whom Havelock had brought, was unable to make its
way out in the face of the overwhelming number of the enemy.
At last, after the siege had lasted 141 days, the final relief came.
The sound of firing was heard outside the city, and soon the news
arrived that a second British force, under Sir Colin Campbell, was
fighting its way through the streets of Lucknow. Havelock and
Sir Colin met amid the ruins of the Residency. This time the
force was strong enough to march out through the enemy, and the
siege of Lucknow, more fortunate than that of Cawnpore, came to
an end.
By this time, indeed, the power of the mutineers was beginning
to give way. Troops hurried out from England had begun to make
their way up the country, and regiments on their way to China had
been wisely stopped at Singapore by the Governor-General, for use
in India, Above all, the Sikhs, under the wise government of Sir
John Lawrence, brother to Sir Henry Lawrence, had kept true to
the British Government, and Lawrence was thus able to send
soldiers from Scinde to assist in putting down the mutiny.
On the 2oth September, 1857, tne great city of Delhi, the centre
of the mutiny, was taken by the British after a terrible siege, and
from that time the fate of the mutineers was sealed.
The British Government rapidly regained its power throughout
the country, the mutinous regiments were destroyed or disbanded,
and their leaders put to death, and by the end of 1858 British rule
was once more firmly established in India. But the terrible danger
which had just passed away had taught some very plain lessons,
which were not neglected. It was felt by all that the time had come
when the government of a mighty country such as India could no
longer safely be left in the hands of a private body such as the East
31
S -n
ii
0
748 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
India Company, and it was decided that the government should be taken
from the Company and placed under the Queen and her Ministers.
An Act of Parliament was passed which enabled this to be done,
and on the ist November, 1858, it was declared that the rule of the
Company had come to an end, and Queen Victoria was proclaimed
as the Sovereign of India, and the head of its government.1
The Volunteer Movement.
"Form, form, Riflemen, form !
Ready, be ready to meet the storm !
Riflemen, Riflemen, Riflemen, form." — Tennyson (1859).
From 1855 down to 1858 Lord Palmerston had been Prime Minister,
but in that latter year he was turned out of office. 'A man named
Orsini, an Italian, had made a plot to murder Louis Napoleon, the
Emperor of the French, by means of an explosive bomb. The bomb
was made by Orsini in England, and was taken over to be used in
Paris. The Emperor escaped, but many people lost their lives by
the explosion. Orsini himself was captured in Paris, but his plot had
been formed in this country, and his accomplices, or those who were
believed to be so, were in England. The French demanded that these
men should be given up to justice, but many people in England were
unwilling that the accused should fall into the hands of Louis Napoleon,
whom they believed to be a usurper and a tyrant.
As a matter of fact, the law of England, as it then stood, did not
allow the Government to give up the persons charged with helping
Orsini. Lord Palmerston declared that if there were no law allowing
him to do so, such a law ought to be passed, for he said that it was
an intolerable thing that men should be allowed to plot and contrive
murder in this country, should carry out their intentions against the ruler
of a friendly state, and should then be able to find a refuge in England.
But the feeling against handing over the accused persons was so great
that, despite the anger of the French Emperor and the French peoplCj
and despite the advice of Lord Palmerston, the House of Commons
refused point-blank to pass the new law, and Lord Palmerston was
1 In 1876 the Queen took the further title of Empress of India., and whenever she signed her
name on any official paper which had to do with matters outside the United Kingdom, she signed
it " V.R. & I.," meaning Victoria, Regina et Imperatrix, Latin words for " VICTORIA, QUEEN
AND EMHRKSS " (of India). King Edward VII. signs " E.R. & I.," which means Edward^ Rej;
ft Iinperator, " EDWARD. KING AND EMI-EROR."
750 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
forced to resign office. But not for long. He was succeeded by
Lord Derby, under whom was Benjamin Disraeli as Chancellor of the
Exchequer. The new Ministry had no strength, and in the following
year Lord Palmerston came back to office again as Prime Minister.
It was fortunate that he had come back, for this was a time of danger
and trouble in Europe, and no one knew better than Lord Palmerston
how to pilot the country through the danger which threatened it.
Among these dangers the most serious was the ill-feeling which had
grown up in France against this country. So serious did this danger
seem that it was felt by all that some special steps must be taken to
guard against the danger of. invasion. The French army was then,
as it is now, much larger than the British army, and it was better
prepared for war. It was therefore proposed that " Volunteers " should
be enrolled in Great Britain and formed into regiments, ready to resist
the French if they came. This was the beginning of what is called the
" Volunteer Movement." The plan found great favour among all classes,
and soon thousands of men came forward and set to work to learn
something of drill and the use of the rifle. Ever since the year 1859
the Volunteers have been growing stronger and better prepared.
The Civil War in the United States— The "Alabama
—The Geneva Award.
"It follows from these views, that no State, upon its own mere
motion, can lawfully get out of the Union ; that resolves and ordinances
to that effect are legally void ; and that acts of violence within any State
or States, against the authority of the United States, are insurrectionary
or revolutionary according to circumstances."
"I hold that in the contemplation of universal law and of the consti-
tution, the union of these States is perpetual. "—President Lincoln at the
beginning of the Civil War.
In 1 86 1 began the great civil war in the United States between the
North and the South. The story of that war cannot be told here.
It was a terrible struggle, which for a time seemed likely to break up
the Union of the States, but which ended in making that Union
stronger than ever. The quarrel first began upon the question of how
far the United States as a whole had the right to interfere with the
affairs of any particular State in the Union. Some of the States
CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. 751
declared that they were too much interfered with, and that they would
separate, or secede, from the Union rather than give in. The Govern-
ment and the people of the Northern States said that they would
not allow the Union to be broken up, and they fought for their
opinions.
But before the war was over it was clear to all that the real question
which must be decided was whether slavery should be allowed to con-
tinue in the United States, or whether it should be done away with.
Happily, the North, who were in favour of freeing the slaves, won
the day, after a struggle which lasted for nearly five years, and slavery
has now long ceased to exist in the United States. But though the
war took place in a distant and foreign country, it made a very great
difference to this country, and for that reason something more must
be said about it. In the first place, it nearly brought about a great
misfortune to this country, for it all but led to a war between the
United Kingdom and the United States.
There were two things which nearly led to a quarrel. The first
was the action of a captain of a United States man-of-war on the
Northern, or Federal,1 side, who stopped a British mail-steamer, called
the Trent, by force and took out of her two messengers who had been
sent on her by the orders of the Southern, or Confederate, Government.
This was a thing which could not possibly be allowed, for clearly it
would be impossible to permit foreign ships of war to treat our ships as
if they belonged to them, or as if they belonged to an enemy. A request
was made to the United States Government that the two men who had
been taken should be given up again, and happily wise counsels gained
the day.
Abraham Lincoln, who was at that time President of the United
States, was a wise and great man. He knew that the act of his officer
was not a right one, and could not be defended, and he therefore gave
orders that Mason and Slidell, the two Southerners who had been taken
out of the Trent, should be delivered up again to the British Govern-
ment. This was done, and all danger was for the time averted.
A second danger, however, arose, which threatened at one time
to prove even more serious than the first. It was more serious because
this time it was Great Britain that seemed to be in the wrong. It
happened that the South were very anxious to obtain ships of war
with which to fight the North and destroy the Northern merchant
ships. The Southerners could not build the ships themselves, and so
they sent over to England and ordered them to be built there. The
ships were built secretly, those who knew what they were intended for
1 The Northerners were known as " Federals," the Southerners as " Confederates."
75 2 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
keeping their secret very well. Even the British Government had no
idea that the ships were being prepared to make war upon the North.
If they had known, it would have been their duty to stop the ships,
and prevent their leaving the country, for it is not allowed for one
country to furnish weapons of war to another for the purpose of being
used against a friendly country.
At last, however, the secret began to leak out, and the British
Government were warned that one of the ships, known as the Alabama,
was about to sail from Liverpool, and was to be used as a warship as
soon as she had taken on board her guns and gunpowder. Directly the
officers of the Government knew what was taking place they sent off
post-haste to stop the ship ; but they were too late — the A labama had
sailed, and the mischief was done. It turned out that the mischief
was very serious, for the Alabama proved to be a dangerous ship to
the North ; and, though she was at last caught and sunk by a Federal
man-of-war, it was not until she had herself captured or destroyed
many hundreds of merchant vessels belonging to the North.
Besides the A labama there were four other vessels which it was said
had either come from British ports, or had been allowed to use such
ports improperly while fighting against the North. The best known of
these ships were the Florida and Shenandoah. The Northerners were
furious when they saw the mischief that was done to their commerce,
and they hastened to lay the whole blame upon this country, and to
claim from England damages for the loss which their country suffered.
As a matter of fact, whatever had been'done by the ships had been
done against the will of the British Government, if they had escaped
it was only by an accident, and there were many in this country who
thought that the United States had no just claim at all upon us. As
long as this matter remained unsettled there was always danger of a
quarrel between the two great English-speaking countries ; and it was,
therefore, a matter which we all ought to feel thankful for that the
question was settled without bloodshed. In the year 1871, six years
after the war in America was over, the British Government agreed to
submit a part of the claims made by the United States to be judged or
arbitrated upon by certain persons chosen for the purpose, and who
were supposed to be equally fair to both sides.
The arbitration took place at Geneva, in Switzerland, and lasted a
long time. The case for this country and that for the United States were
carefuDy stated by lawyers on either side. At last the decision was
given, and unfortunately it was against this country. The arbitrators
declared that, although we had not desired to let the ships go, we had
not taken sufficient care to prevent their going, and that therefore we
THE COTTON FAMINE. 753
must answer for the consequences. Their judgment was that England
should pay to the United States the sum of £3,2,29,166 135. 4d.
This amount was accordingly paid over, and thus the dispute was
settled. It is a very fortunate thing that two great countries such as
Britain and the United States should have been the first to set the
example to the world, and to show that even serious disputes may
sometimes be far better settled by reason and argument than by
force of arms.
The Cotton Famine.
" Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to
you, do ye euen so to them." — Matthew \\\. 12.
Besides the difficulty which arose out of the matter of the steam-
ship Trent, and that which followed the escape of the Alabama, a third
trouble arose out of the American Civil War which had a very terrible
effect on England. The whole of the cotton which was used in the mills
of Lancashire came in the year 1861 from the Southern States of the
Union, chiefly from Alabama and Tennessee. Before the war had been
going on very long, the North set to work to blockade, or shut up, all
the harbours of the Southern States. They declared these harbours
to be " blockaded,'1'' and forbade ships of any kind to go in or out of
them. A few ships did succeed in passing in or out, "running the
blockade," as it was called; but most of the ships which made the
attempt were captured by the Northern men-of-war.
The consequence was that the ships bringing cotton ceased to arrive
at Liverpool ; and there being no cotton, the cotton mills had to be
stopped ; and thousands of men, women and children who were em-
ployed in them were thrown out of work. Soon there was very great
distress, and even starvation, in Lancashire. Money was collected in all
parts of the United Kingdom to help the poor Lancashire work-people,
who were suffering from no fault of their own.
But though as much as £3,000,000 was collected, this was not nearly
enough to provide for the wants of the thousands who were out of work.
As long as the war lasted the distress in Lancashire was very great
indeed ; and it was not till the end of the war, when the North had
gained a complete victory over the South, that the supply of cotton
began again, and the -mills could once more be opened.
754 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
But though the story of the Lancashire cotton famine is a very sad
one, there is a bright side to it, which should never be forgotten. There
were many people in this country who wished the British Government
to take sides with the Southern States, or, at any rate, to declare that
they had become a separate nation and ought to be treated as such.
If either of these things had happened, there can be no doubt that the
blockade of the Southern harbours would have been put to an end at
once, the cotton would have come over as freely as before, and the
" Cotton Famine " would have been at an end.
If the people in the great county of Lancashire had united to make
the Government take sides with the South, most likely the Government
would have been forced to take such a step. But the work-people of
Lancashire took a very noble part. They believed that the Northerners
were in the right, and that they were fighting to put down the hateful
cause of slavery ; and so, though their own interests would have been
served if Great Britain had helped the South, they never changed their
mind, but all through the war, and all through the time of suffering
which the war caused, they remained true to what they believed to be
the right. What Lancashire did at this time ought not to be forgotten,
either by Lancashire men or by any of their fellow-countrymen.
And now we are coming very close to the days in which we live,
days which have scarcely gone by long enough to take their place in
" history." But a word or two must be said about them, so as to
bring the story which is told in this book down to the time when those
who read it were born.
Our Own Times.
" Our purpose in this Bill is briefly this, to bring Elementary Education
within the reach of every English home, aye, and within the reach of
those children who have no homes. This is what we aim at in this Bill ;
and this is what I believe this Bill will do."— Speech of Mr. W. E. Forster
when bringing in the Education Bill, 1870.
In 1865 Lord Palmerston died, at the age of 80, and Lord Russell became
Prime Minister in his place. The very next year Lord Russell had
to make way for Lord Derby, who, as before, chose for the Chancellor
of the Exchequer Benjamin Disraeli. It was during the Ministry of
Lord Derby that a second great "Reform Bill" was passed, which gave
THE EDUCATION ACT.
755
to a great many people who had never had votes before the right to
vote for Members of Parliament.
In 1867 an attempt was made by the members of an Irish Secret
Society, known as the "Fenians" to start an insurrection in Ireland.
A great many of the Fenians were soldiers of Irish birth who had
fought in the American Civil War. The police, however, were well
informed about the plot ; some of the leaders were taken away
prisoners, others escaped, and
the insurrection came to
nothing.
In 1868 Mr. Gladstone be-
came Prime Minister for the
first time, and remained in
office till 1874. During this
time two Acts of Parliament
were passed which must be
remembered. The first is the
Education Act, the second the
Ballot Act. Both Bills v/ere
brought in by Mr. W. E. Forster.
It was the Education Act of
1870 which led to School Boards
being set up in a great many
places, and to all children
being compelled to go to
school. Other countries had
already found out how great
an advantage it was for the
whole people to be properly
educated, and both in France
and Germany children were compelled to go to school as a matter of
course. We have now learnt the same lesson in our country, and it
is the law that all children must either be properly educated at home
or be sent to school. By another law, which was passed in the year
1891, all parents were given the right to have their children's schooling
free if they so desired.
By the Ballot Act the manner of giving votes in elections to Par-
liament was altered. Before 1872 all votes were given openly, and it
was thus known which way any man voted. It was therefore possible
for badly-disposed persons to punish voters for giving their votes in a
particular way. By the Ballot Act all voting was made secret, and now
after an election nobody knows for certain which way a particular man
QUEEN VICTORIA IN HER 8oTH YEAR.
(Photo by Hughes S> Mullins, Ryde.)
756
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
has voted. The new plan has helped to prevent voters being bribed
or threatened, lor it is no use bribing a man if you can never be sure
whether, after taking the bribe, he has not voted the other way after
all ; nor is it any use threatening a man for the use he makes of his
vote when you can never be certain how he has used it.
In 1874 Mr. Disraeli became
Prime Minister, .and governed
the country for six years. It
was in these years that wars
took place in Afghanistan, and
in Zululand, in South Africa.
The Republic of the Transvaal,
in South Africa, and the island
of Cyprus were annexed to the
British Empire.
_$••&. r "VJ In 1880 Mr. Gladstone, in
Sil his turn, turned out Mr. Dis-
raeli.1 Mr. Gladstone remained
in office for five years. During
this time the country was
seldom free from war. In 1880
the Boers of the Transvaal rose
in rebellion. The British troops
sent against them were de-
feated, and our Government
at once surrendered, and gave
up the Transvaal. It has not
been usual for a British Gov-
ernment to give in directly its
soldiers are beaten, and though
there were some who approved
of what had been done, there
were many who strongly con-
demned it.
In 1882 a British expedition
was sent to Egypt to put down the army of Arabi Pasha, who had risen
in revolt against the Khedive of Egypt, who was our ally. The forts
of Alexandria were bombarded by the British fleet, and a great part of
the city of Alexandria was, unluckily, burnt by a riotous mob before
STATUE OF WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER IN
FRONT OF THE LONDON SCHOOL BOARD.
1 Mr. Disraeli was in 1876 summoned to the House of Lords as Lord Beaconsfield. He died
April 19, 1 88 1.
POLITICAL CHANGES.
757
troops could be landed to keep order. Arabi was defeated at the
battle of Tel-el-Kebir, and was taken prisoner.
There was much savage fighting in Egypt after this, owing to the
attempt of an Arab chief, who called himself the "Mahdi," to invade
the country. General Gordon, a gallant and noble soldier, was sent to
Khartoum, on the river Nile, and was there besieged by the followers
of the Mahdi. After a long delay, British troops were sent to rescue
him, but they arrived too late,
only to find that Khartoum had
fallen and General Gordon been
murdered.
The political history of the
next few years is chiefly con-
cerned with what is known as
the Irish Home Rule agitation. A
large party in Ireland desired to
establish a separate parliament
in Dublin, and in 1885, Mr. Glad-
stone, who had hitherto not been
in favour of Home Rule, declared
himself to be one of its supporters.
He was followed in his change of
politics by many members of the
Liberal party in Parliament, and
in 1886 a Home Rule Bill was
brought into the House of Com-
mons ; it was defeated by a
majority of 30. In the new Par-
liament elected in the same year,
the Unionists, or opponents of
Home Rule, with Lord Salisbury as Prime Minister, were in a large
majority. Six years later (1892), however, after another general
election, Mr. Gladstone was once more returned to power, and in
1893 introduced a second Home Rule Bill, which passed the House of
Commons by a majority of 34 votes on the 2nd of September, but
was rejected by the House of Lords. Mr. Gladstone himself retired
from politics in 1894, and Lord Rosebery was for a short time Prime
Minister, but in 1895 he was compelled to resign. Parliament was
dissolved and the elections gave a majority of 152 Unionists, and
Lord Salisbury again became Prime M inister.
In the autumn of 1900 another general election took place, when
Lord Salisbury was once more returned to office,
GENERAL GORDON
(Statue by Hamo Thorneycroft, R.A.,
in Trafalgar Square).
758
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
In 1887 the "Jubilee," or fiftieth year, of the Queen's reign was
celebrated. In January, 1892, the Duke of Clarence, eldest son of the
Prince of Wales and heir to the throne, died. In 1897 tne sixtieth year
of the reign of Queen Victoria was celebrated with great rejoicing
throughout the whole of the British Empire.
KING EDWARD VII. AND QUEEN ALEXANDRA.
(Photo by Gunn &* Stuart, Richmond.')
The Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State declared war
against the British in 1899, and a long struggle ensued, during which
the two Republics were annexed to the British Empire, but a guerilla
war was continued till May 31, 1902, when peace was signed.
On the 22nd of January, 1901, at the age of 81, Queen Victoria died,
to the intense grief of the whole Empire. Her reign had lasted over
63 years, the longest of any English Sovereign. She was succeeded
by her eldest son, who took the title of Edward VIL (115).
759
CHAPTER LXXV.
THE CONQUESTS OF PEACE.
The Australian Colonies and South Africa,
"Sea-king and Sage: staunch huntsman of pure fame.
Beating the waste of waters for his game,
Untrodden shores of tribes without a name,
That nothing in an island's shape,
Mist-muffled peak, or faint cloud-cape,
Might his determined thoughtful glance escape
No virgin lands he left unknown,
Where future Englands might be sown,
And nations noble as his own."
A. Domett: " RanolJ and Amohia."
MUCH of this book has been taken up in describing the way in
which great portions of our Empire have been won and kept by the
expenditure of the blood and wealth of our countrymen ; but we
must not forget that there are parts of our Empire as great and as
important as those of which we have spoken, which have been won
wholly or to a great extent without shedding of blood, and without
a war against any European Power.
First and foremost of all must be named the great Australasian
Colonies. It is not without reason that Australians love to honour the
name of Captain Cook. It was he who, sailing in the South Pacific in
1769, sighted New Zealand, and next year landed in New Holland, now
known as New South Wales. It was he who, a year or two later, dis-
covered New Caledonia, and in 1778 the Sandwich Islands. Finally he
met with his death at the hands of the natives of Hawaii, one of the
Sandwich Islands.
From the days of Captain Cook the Australasian Colonies have
grown — first slowly and of late rapidly. Their early years were
darkened by the fact that they were made Penal Stations for convicts
sent from this country, and Botany Bay, one of the most lovely spots in
New South Wales, earned an unhappy fame on account of the convict
station established near it. In the year 1868, however, the sending of
convicts to most of the Australasian Colonies was discontinued, and
y6o
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
since that date it has been given up altogether. From that time
forward the progress of the Colonies has been steady.
New South Wales, the oldest of them all, dates its history from
its first settlement by Captain Phillip, who chose the position of the
present capital of Sydney. Tasmania, formerly known as "Van
Dieman's Land," had been diseovered as far back as 1642 by
Tasman, a Dutch-
man ; but it was
not till 1804 that
the first Governor
was sent out to
this beautiful is-
land, and Hobart
Town, its capital,
now called Ho-
bart, founded.
The rights of
Britain to New
Zealand were re-
cognised in 1840,
and the islands
were placed
under the
Government of
New South
Wales. It was
not till 1852 that
a separate New
Zealand Parlia-
ment was formed.
Victoria, like New
Zealand, was
considered for
many years a
part of the
Colony of New South Wales. It was not till 1851 that it received
its present name, and became independent ; and now, with its im-
mense capital of Melbourne, it is one of the richest though not one
of the largest of the Australian Colonies. South Australia, the great
territory which, oddly enough, contains almost the northern point of
Australia,1 became a Colony in 1836. The remaining Australian
1 Cape Wessel.
CAPTAIN COOK.
(Ftom the original portrait by Dance in the Gallery of Greenwich
Hospital.}
THE BRITISH EMPIRE. -761
Colonies, though they are already important States, are of very recent
origin. Queensland may be said to date from 1860 ; Western Australia is
older. On January ist, 1901, the Colonies (except New Zealand) were
confederated under the title of the Commonwealth of Australia. The
outlying Fiji Islands, which now have their own Governor, were annexed
to the Empire in 1874.
In Africa, the Cape Colony, as we have already read, was captured
by British arms; but the great tracts of British territory in South
Africa are in a large measure due to the energy and enterprise of
British explorers. Natal was annexed in 1843. Zululand has since been
added to it. The great stretch of territory between the northern
frontier of Cape Colony and the southern end of Lake Tanganyika
has now been added, under one form or another, to the British
Dominions. The government of the Transvaal and of the Orange Free
State was for several years in the hands of the Dutch Boers. In 1899,
however, the latter made war upon the British, but were defeated,
and their countries annexed (1900) to the British Empire. The States
are now known as the Transvaal (or Vaal River Colony) and the Orange
Eiver Colony, respectively.
On the east coast, the island of Zanzibar and a large portion of
the mainland, known as " British East Africa," have come under our
rule, while our original possessions on the west coast, especially on the
River Niger, have been greatly increased. A portion of the island of
Borneo now belongs to a British Company, while Singapore and Hong
Kong, two of the most important British possessions in Eastern Asia,
have become ours by treaty — the former in 1824 an^ the latter in 1842.
The British Empire.
"Sharers of our glorious past,
Brothers, must we part at last ?
Shall we not thro' good and ill
Cleave to one another still?
Britain's myriad uoices calf,
Sons, be welded each and all
Into one Imperial whole,
One with Britain, heart and soul !
One life, one flag, one fleet, one Throne I
Britons, hold your own!" — Tennyson.
It is well to consider for a moment what this " British Empire," of
which we have spoken so often, really is at the present day. It is
true to say that nothing like it has ever been known before in the
762 HISTORY uf ENGLAND.
history of the world. It covers an area of no less than 11,334,391
square miles ; its population is no less than 382,612,448.
But these figures in themselves tell us little. It is neither the area
over which it extends, nor the number of people whom it contains,
that gives to the British Empire such strength as it possesses. It
is sometimes necessary to weigh as well as to count. But when
we come to weigh as well as to count, the greatness of the oppor-
tunity which has been given to British citizens appears more plainly
than ever.
If we look at a map of the world we shall see that by far the
greater part of the " temperate regions " of the earth outside Europe
are within the limits of the British Empire. The British Islands
themselves, the centre of the whole, are situated in a latitude (50° to
59° N.) which is so far north that in a less favoured part of the globe
they would be in the region of almost Arctic ice. Lying in the
warm current of the Gulf Stream, and washed by the waters of the
Atlantic, they enjoy a climate in which, with all its disadvantages,
the work of man can be carried on by a hardy and industrious race
with a vigour and a freedom from interruption not excelled in any
other country.
Canada, though exposed to the rigours of a severe winter, is a land
in which men of white race can work and live and thrive. The great
island continent of Australia is so large that although its southern
portion extends into the Temperate Zone, it reaches in the north
up into the half- tropical heat of the nth parallel. But throughout
nearly all the inhabited portions of Australia, in the lovely islands
of New Zealand, and the scarcely less lovely island of Tasmania, men
of European race can live and work without any great change in
their habits or ways of living. In South Africa, where men of British
race are pouring in by thousands, the same thing is to a very large
extent true ; and though the presence of a large native population
makes life very different in some respects from what it is in Europe,
there seems no reason to believe that the growing nation which is
fast springing up is likely to lose the qualities which it has inherited
from the old country, but that, on the contrary, it is in a fair way
to become one of the strongest and most stirring branches of the
great Anglo-Saxon family.
And it must be remembered that all these men of British stock
are truly of one race, speaking one language, and one and all proud,
and justly proud, of the famous history of the powerful and ancient
land from which they all alike have sprung.
But this is not all that makes up the strength of the British
THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 763
Empire. Within its borders there are at this day more than fifty
millions of men and women of British race speaking English as their
native tongue. This, above all and before all, is the true strength
of the Empire. But there are other things which in a lesser degree
help to make it strong. It has been said of Britannia that
" Her march is o'er the mountain waves,
Her home is on the deep."
Ar.d the same thing is true, almost in the same degree, of the great
Empire which is bound together by the waters of the sea, which now
unite, and no longer divide widely-separated shores.
Let us once more look at the map, and learn the lesson which
it teaches us. It tells us in very plain language that the gates of the
pathways of the seas are in the possession of men of British race,
and citizens of the British Empire. Look at the names, and mark
how the places they represent stand sentinel on all the great ocean
highways. Gibraltar, Malta, Aden, Perim, Colombo, on the road to
India and the East ; Singapore and Hong Kong, still further to the
East. Port Darwin, on the north of Australia, King George's Sound on
the south, secure the road to the Southern Pacific. Again turn
westward, and there mark where Halifax, Bermuda, and the West
Indian Colonies knit together the transatlantic territories of the
oldest and most widely extended of all the States of America,
joining Canada on the north, with British Guiana on the south.
Lastly, note how the remote Falkland Islands keep watch over the
road which leads round Cape Horn ; and how the harbours of Van-
couver and Esquimault in British Columbia protect the end of the
great Canadian Pacific Railway, and display the flag of our Empire
upon the North Pacific Ocean. When we have noticed these things,
and understand how much they mean, we shall know what is meant
by saying ^that " The Gates of the pathways of the sea are in the hands
of the British race."
But even this is not all that can be said of the great inheritance
to which every subject of the Kin< is born an heir. Mark where
the huge peninsula of India lies bathed in the warm waves of the
Indian Ocean.
That great peninsula, with its rich products, its teeming population,
its wonderful history, is governed from end to end — from the snowy
Himalayas, which encircle and protect it on the north, down to the
southern extremity where -Cape Comorin stretches into the Indian
Ocean — by men of British race. The right and the power to govern
764 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
India wisely, honourably, and well, is one of the privileges in which
every one oj: the King's subjects has the right to take his share.
Such is, then, the great Empire to which we belong. To-day it
stands firm, and fair, the envy of all the world. But who can say
how long it will stand as it does to-day ? Whether it stand or fall
will depend upon the wisdom and courage of the British race. If
we stand together, no power in the world is strong enough to over-
throw such an Empire. But if we do not stand together, if every
part of the Empire thinks it is strong enough to get on by itself, and
cares nothing for the welfare of the whole, then, indeed, it is certain
that, great, and splendid as our Empire is, it will before long break
up and be destroyed, and the greatest opportunity that ever was
given to any people since the world began will be thrown away,
never to be recovered.
There is an ancient story, one of the famous fables of y£sop,
which tells how a young man, being set to break a bundle of faggots,
at last gave up the task in despair, and came to ask advice of one
wiser than himself as to how he should accomplish the task. And
this was the counsel that his friend gave him: "United," said he,
" the sticks which compose the faggot will never yield to your efforts ;
do but untie the string which binds them together, and then nothing
will be easier than to break each separate stick at your leisure, and
your task will soon be accomplished." The young man took the
advice that was given him, and in a trice what had before seemed
too firm and strong for the most powerful man to destroy, was
broken into pieces with ease when once the bond of union was
taken away.
And this story supplies a lesson which may be learnt, and ought
to be learnt, by every Briton, wherever he lives, throughout the
Empire. The United Kingdom is a great country; Canada is a.
great country; Australia and New Zealand are great countries;
South Africa is, or is fast becoming a great country also; but
not one of these countries can ever be as great or as powerful
when standing alone as they perhaps might be, if they choose to
stand as parts of the great British Empire. There are plenty
of people, enemies of our country, who would rejoice to see the
bundle of faggots unbound, and each stick composing it broken
and cast aside.
But if those who belong to the Empire, wherever they live
throughout the world, are determined not only that the bond of
union shall never be broken, but that, on the contrary, it shall be
drawn much closer, and made still stronger than it now is ; then,
THE GROWING GIANT. 765
beyond doubt, the future ol our race will be not less great and glorious
than its past has been. When once that union has been made sure
and strong, then indeed the British Empire will be able to face the
world without fear, and safe from all danger of attack, and will be
able to grow in peace under the free institutions and just laws which
many generations of Britons have won and maintained.
CHAPTER LXXVI.
STEPS ON THE PATH OF FREEDOM.
The Growing- Giant.
11 A land of settled government,
A land of old and just renown ;
Where freedom slowly broadens down
From precedent to precedent." — Tennyson.
IN the chapters which have gone before, we have learnt something
of the order in which the principal events in the history of our country
took place between the date of the accession of George I. and the
present time. We have read a great deal about wars by sea and
by land, about treaties and peaces, and about the doings of great
statesmen and great soldiers. It must not be supposed, however, that
such things as these make up the history of a great country like our
own, or, indeed, of any country.
It is true that the wars which went on almost continuously between
1714 and 1815 were of the greatest possible importance to the United
Kingdom, and, indeed, to the whole of what is now the British Empire.
During those hundred years the foundations of the British Empire as
we now know it were laid and firmly established. Seldom has a nation
run greater risks than were incurred by our country during that time of
war, and seldom has a nation gained more by war than was gained by
the United Kingdom during the long struggle which came to an end
in 1815.
But in that year, happily, war ceased, and the country enjoyed
766 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
forty years of almost undisturbed peace. During those years, and the
forty years which followed, very great changes were made or begun in
this country which are of the greatest possible importance to all of us
who now live in it.
It is not easy to describe all these great changes in a word or in
a sentence, but if one were called upon to describe them very shortly
it would be true to say that they were nearly all of them Steps on the
path of Freedom. This may seem rather a hard sentence to under-
stand, but its meaning can easily be made clear. It was no new
thing that the English people should advance along the path of
freedom. In an earlier part of this book we read how the Barons
of England won Magna Charta from King John, and thus took a
great step to free the people from unjust government on the part
of its kings. We read how Simon de Montfort took another step by
giving us a Parliament which, though not always as free as our own
Parliament is at the present day, was through the whole of its long
life at all times the freest and greatest assembly in the world.
The Reformation and the changes which followed it did something
towards giving us freedom in matters of religion, and allowing people
to think and believe what they pleased. But much more still remained
to be done before this freedom was really won.
The Civil War, and the Revolution which placed William III. upon
the throne, freed us from the tyranny of kings. And, indeed, in many
other ways each century of our history has brought with it some fresh
liberty, and though freedom came little by little, the cause of freedom
always grew stronger. It would be a great mistake to blame or think
ill of our forefathers because their ideas of what people ought to be
allowed to do were not exactly the same as our own. A nation grows
as a man grows, and what is wise and proper for the child is quite
unsuitable for a grown-up man.
The people of England kept growing and stretching like a young
giant, and as it grew, its old clothes — the old laws which had fitted it
well enough in its' youth — became tight and oppressive, and the healthy
young giant began to push through them at knees and elbows. Some-
times a little patching was enough, but after a time patching would
serve no longer, and a new suit, roomier and easier than the old one,
had to be furnished.
But though the growth of English freedom had gone steadily on for
hundreds of years, it must be confessed that during part of the time
about which we have been reading in this book, there seemed to be
a stoppage, and as if all hope of gaining more liberty had come to
an end. The time when this stoppage seemed to take place was that
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND BRITISH FREEDOM. 767
which was occupied by the great wars which followed the outbreak of
the French Revolution in 1789.
The French Revolution and British Freedom.
" We Englishmen stop uery short of the principles upon which we
support any given part of our Constitution : or even the whole of it
together . . . But although there are some amongst us who think our
Constitution wants many improvements to make it a complete system of
liberty, perhaps none who are of that opinion would think it right to aim
at such improvements by disturbing his country and risking everything
that is dear to him." — Burke : Speech on Conciliation with America, p. no.
It is not hard to understand why this stoppage should have taken
place. There were really two very good reasons for it. In the first
place the war itself furnished a reason. There is an American proverb
which says, " It is ill to change horses whilst crossing a stream." And
indeed it is quite true that though a man who is fording a stream may
have a bad mount, he will be wise if he waits till he gets to the other
side before he changes it. And so it was with Britain. There were
very many wise and plear-sighted men in the country who knew well
that the nation had gone on growing while its laws and liberties had
not grown, and who were quite willing, and indeed anxious, to improve
the laws and to extend the liberties of the country.
But what they thought and what they said was : " Not now ; there
is a time for everything, but not for everything at the same time. Our
country is fighting for its life : our first business is to win, and to free
the country from the greatest danger of all — that of conquest by a
foreign nation." It was Freedom, after all, that they were fighting for.
They knew well enough that if once the freedom of this country upon
the sea and within her own borders were taken away, there would
be an end of all chance of improving the laws, or, indeed, of living an
honourable life under existing laws. Therefore they said, " Changes
in the law are no doubt needed, but they must wait."
There was another reason, too, which for a time checked the
advance of freedom. The people of France, or some of them, had
declared that they, and they alone of all the peoples of Europe, knew
what freedom meant, and that their way of getting it and enjoying it
was the only right way. When, however, the people of England began
768 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
to see that in spite of all the fine words which were used about it,
freedom, as understood by the French at that time, meant plunder,
and civil war, and lawlessness and cruelty at home, and that it meant
endless war and conquest abroad; when, too, they learnt, as they
did a little later, that all this fine talk about freedom was to end
in the triumph of a soldier who had made himself absolute master
of France, and ruled half Europe with the bayonet, they began to dis-
trust and fear the very name of freedom which seemed to bring nothing
but misery and tyranny in its train. Luckily, freedom may be won
by other means, and may be used in other ways very different from
those which found favour in France at the time of the Revolution.
When we think of these things, it is hard to blame our ancestors
for not going quite so fast as we have done since. But though there
may have been a good reason for going slowly for a time, it must
not be supposed for a moment that the nation was not growing. On
the contrary, it was growing very fast, and never did the old clothes
seem tighter, and more inconvenient, and more old-fashioned than
when peace came in 1815, and allowed the Government once more
to turn its attention to matters at home. It was indeed time that
they should do so, for already the discontent and distress which had
so long been kept under had become very serious.
And now let us see what were the new steps on the path of freedom
which were taken between the year 1815 and our own time. Here is a
short list of the most important steps : —
1. Freedom of the individual.
(a) The emancipation of the slaves.
(b) The freedom of workmen from excessive work.
2. Freedom of thought and religious opinion.
3. Freedom and extension of communication.
4. Freedom of the press.
5. Freedom of trade and commerce.
6. Freedom of Parliamentary voting.
Freedom of the Individual : the Abolition of Slavery and
the Slave Trade.
" That execrable sum of all villainies commonly called a Slaue Trade. "
— John Wesley : Journal.
There are many kinds of freedom, but the most important of all,
the one which must come first to our minds, is the right of a man or a
FREEDOM OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 769
woman to be free from interference with his or her right to live, an<?
move, and act. It is proper, therefore, that in speaking of the freedom
which the last hundred years brought with it, to put first and foremost
the release of men and women from slavery.
Long ago slavery had come to an end as far as Englishmen were
concerned. It was not till the year 1772, when George III. was king,
that it was declared that the law of England forbade anyone to be kept
as a slave within the United Kingdom. In that year the famous case
of the negro Somerset was decided. A negro slave named Somerset
was turned out in the streets by his master because he was ill and
unable to work. The slave was found almost dead in the streets by
a Mr. Granville Sharp, who, being a kind and humane man, had him
taken to the hospital, and found a situation for him when he got well.
Two years afterwards Somerset's old master met him, and at once told
a policeman to put him into prison as a runaway slave.
" He is my property," said the master, " and no one has any more
right to take him away than they have to take my hat or coat." Mr.
Sharp and the master went to law to settle their dispute, and the
Lord Mayor of London, who had to try the case, at once declared
that Somerset was free, and that his old master had no right to claim
him. The matter did not end there. The master, in defiance of the
Lord Mayor, tried to carry off Somerset again, and at last the whole
matter came before the judges. It was then that Lord Mansfield,
speaking on behalf of twelve of the judges, declared that by the law of
England a man became free the moment he touched our shores. This put an
end to slavery in England for ever. It is now true -to say, in the words
of the poet :
" Slaves cannot breathe in England ; if their lungs
Receive our air, that moment they are free ;
They touch our country, and their shackles fall."1
But more than this had to be done before Britain could be free
from the blame of encouraging and allowing slavery. The next thing
to be done after freeing the slaves in England was to stop the trade in
slaves. This cruel and hateful trade was carried on between Africa on
the one hand and North and South America and the West Indies on
the other. Negroes dragged from their home by parties of armed men
were crowded into the slave ships and carried across the Atlantic.
Many died on the way from the overcrowding of the ships and ill-
treatment. Those who were safely landed were sold as slaves to 'vork
on the sugar and cotton plantations.
1 Cowper.
z
770 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Towards the end of the eighteenth century two or three noble-minded
men took the lead in trying to get the Government to declare the slave
trade illegal. The chief among them were William Wilberforce, Thomas
Clarkson, and Zachary Macaulay, father of Lord Macaulay, whose name
is so well known. The chief supporters of Clarkson, Wilberforce, and
Macaulay were the members of the Society of Friends, commonly known
as the " Quakers ," who were foremost in this and in many other
good works.
It was not till the year 1805, however, the year in which the battle
of Trafalgar was fought, that the British Government issued its first
order against the slave trade. Two years later a second order was
issued stricter than the first, which forbade slaves to be taken to any
British possession, and orders were given to British warships to
capture all vessels which they found disobeying the order.
It was a great thing to have stopped the slave trade, but something
more remained to be done, for in the British Colonies and West
Indies, and on the American coast, thousands of negroes were still
held as slaves by British masters. For many years the followers of
Wilberforce and Clarkson did their best to persuade the Government
to do away with slavery in every part of the British Empire. The
part which had been taken by Clarkson and Wilberforce was now
taken by Sir Powell Buxton and others. It was not, however, till the
year 1838, in the reign of Queen Victoria, that an Act of Parliament
was passed doing away with slavery in the West India Islands
altogether and setting free all the slaves.
One thing deserves to be specially remembered when we read of
the freeing of the slaves. Up to that time the slaves had been the
property of their masters, and had been bought and sold just like
cattle or any other kind of possession. Large sums had been spent in
purchasing them, and it was clear that if they were all set free at once,
without any payment being made to the masters, the latter would be
ruined. Some people said that it was not necessary to pay the
masters anything, that it was wrong to keep slaves, and that it would
be a mistake to pay men who had been doing what was wrong.
But Parliament and the majority of the people were wiser and more
honest than those who spoke in this way. They said, " The masters
have only done what the law allowed them to do. If, when the law is
altered, they break it, they will deserve to be punished ; but it will be
most unfair to punish them if they have not broken the law." And
so it was decided to pay a large sum out of the taxes — no less than
£20,000,000 — to the masters who had been suddenly deprived of their
property.
FREEDOM OF THE INDIVIDUAL. 771
This was honest and right, for if any other plan were to be followed
as a rule by Parliament, no one would dare to spend money or engage
in trade at all. An Act of Parliament does not make a thing right
or wrong, it only makes it legal or illegal, and it would be very hard
if people who had obeyed the law all their lives were to be punished
because Parliament had suddenly changed its ideas.
Freedom of the Individual (continued)-. The Slavery of
Toil— Freeing- the Worker.
"Work! work! work!
While the cock is crowing aloof :
And work ! work ! work I
Till the stars shine through the roof.
It's oh! to be a slaue
Along with a barbarous Turk,
Where a woman has never a soul to save,
If this is Christian work ! "
Hood : " Song of the Shirt."
We have not, happily, had to set any of our countrymen free from
slavery such as that which existed in the West Indies; but there is a
slavery of work which is often even more cruel and hard to bear
than the slavery of a master. A great deal has been done during the
nineteenth century to set free Englishmen, and more especially English
women and children, from the slavery of long hours and overwork from
which they suffered.
There are many men and women now alive who can remember the
dark days when men, women and, indeed, young children, were set to
work in mines and factories for twelve, and sometimes even for fifteen,
hours a day. In those days work was indeed to many a slavery
scarcely less terrible — sometimes, indeed, more terrible — than that
which was endured by the negroes in Jamaica.
Few could hear the stories which were told of this overwork
and its bad results without feeling for the sufferers and yearning to
see the long hours of labour shortened. Unluckily, the workers
found few who knew what they had to undergo, and fewer still who
were ready to take trouble to make other people understand it.
772 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Happily, however, there were Englishmen whose hearts were touched
by the sorrows of their fellow-countrymen, and who made it the
special work of their lives to make these sad stories known, and
to try to get Parliament and the nation to do something towards
mending matters.
It was not an easy task. Few were found to say that they
thought the long hours and the overwork a good thing, but many
good and wise men were found who said that it was a dangerous
thing to interfere with the right of men and women to work as
long as they pleased, and that even parents had a right to say how
long their children should work, and that no one ought to interfere
with them.
There is a great deal of truth in what these men said. We have
just been reading in this chapter how in a great many ways English-
men had been fighting for greater freedom, and had succeeded in
winning it. It is certainly true, that to prevent a man from doing
what he likes with his own time, with the labour of his own hands,
is to interfere with his freedom.
Happily, however, English people have a way of getting a good'
thing done by means of a little " give and take," and they have agreed
that it is better to give up a little freedom in one direction in order
to gain great freedom in another.
If we were to name any one Englishman as being the leader of
the movement for shortening the hours of labour, we should give
the name of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, afterwards Earl of Shaftesbury,
who as far back as the year 1833 brought in a Bill for limiting the
hours of labour in factories, and who fought for the cause down to
the end of his long life in 1885. But others had been at work
before him, and there were others who worked with him.
In the year 1802 the hours of apprentices were shortened to
twelve hours a day. In 1819 children under nine years of age were
forbidden to work in the cotton mills; and children under sixteen
were limited to twelve hours' work a day, and were forbidden to work
at night. In the reign of William IV. (1833) a great change was
made by compelling children to be sent as " half-timers " — that is,
compelling them to be sent to school during the half of the day in
which they were not at work. So far, the children only had been
cared for. It was to Lord Ashley that a first victory for the women
was due. Their hours were fixed (1844) at not more than twelve
hours a day.
Other Acts were passed, all helping to lighten the labour of
women and children. Inspectors were appointed to see that the law
FRI-:I-:DOM or THOUGHT AND RELIGIOUS OPINION. 773
was obeyed. In 1847 came perhaps the most important change of
all, when the hours of work of women and young persons in the
textile mills were limited to ten hours. This great change did not affect
women and young persons only, but it affected the men working
in the factories also, for the mills could not be kept open after the
women had left, and thus the men's day also was limited to ten hours.
The great workers for this Bill were Lord Shaftesbury, Mr. Fielden,
Member of Parliament for Oldham, and Mr. Oastler, Member for
Huddersfield.
Since the Ten Hours Bill was passed, still further changes have
been made. The work in many factories has been reduced to nine
hours a day.
Laws have been passed shortening the hours of railway servants ;
and in 1894 the Government of the country set a great example by
shortening the hours of work in the Government workshops, the
great dockyards and arsenals, to eight hours a day. Many people
honestly believed that such changes as those which have been
described would do great harm, and would injure the trade and
industry of the country. But this has not hitherto proved to be the
case ; on the other hand, there can be no doubt that the shortening
of hours has been a blessing to millions, and has given to those
who were formerly slaves to their work leisure in which to enjoy
their lives, and freedom to use their minds and their bodies according
to their own inclinations during their own time. This is indeed a.
great freedom to have won.
Freedom of Thought and Religious Opinion.
"Give me liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to
conscience, aboue all liberties." — Milton : " The Liberty of Unlicenssd Printing."
There is hardly a time in English history in which we do not find
some body of wise and brave men and women striving to win greater
liberty of thought, and the right to hold their own opinions about
religious matters vvithout interference. In our own days there is
little more to be done, for the battle has at last been won, and long
before the year 1815 also many a victory had been won for the same
774 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
cause ,- but there were still some strongholds to be attacked and
won even at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
In the first place, there still existed laws which .prevented persons
holding particular religious beliefs from enjoying the same rights as
were allowed to all other citizens. These laws were directed against
the Roman Catholics, the "Dissenters" — that is to say, Protestants
who " dissented " or differed from the Church of England — and
the Jews. We have read in an earlier chapter how it came about
that these laws were made, and we have also seen that some of
the most severe laws of the kind had already been done away
with ; but some of them still remained. For instance, the Roman
Catholics felt it very unjust that in Ireland, where they formed a
large majority of the people, they should not be allowed to hold
public offices, to dispose of their property as they pleased, to vote
for Members of Parliament, or to be elected Members of Parliament.
In England and Scotland also there were still special laws in
force against the Roman Catholics, but they were less severe than
those which existed in Ireland. It was still the law, however, that
before a man could be appointed to certain public offices, or take
his degree at the Universities, he must take an oath, called the
'•'Oath of Supremacy and Allegiance.'1'' The oath was drawn up in
words which prevented any Roman Catholic, and, indeed, any Dis-
senter, from taking it, for it would have made them declare that they
believed things to be true which in their conscience they thought to
be untrue. And thus many loyal Roman Catholics and Dissenters
who would have served the country well if they had been allowed to do
so, or who might have become successful scholars at the Universities,
were kept out by the law.
In fairness it must be said that though the laws against the Roman
Catholics were very old-fashioned, and in many cases very unjust, the
better feeling which had grown up between Protestants and Roman
Catholics in Great Britain, and to some extent also in Ireland, had led
to the laws being used with much less severity than had been the case
in earlier days. Still, there could be no doubt the time had come for
doing away with the laws altogether," and allowing all loyal and true
subjects to serve the country with equal advantages and under equal
conditions. But in this, as in very many other great changes, it was
necessary to go step by step, for the people who had been long accus-
tomed to the old laws, required to be taught to agree to the change.
In 1791, when Pitt was Prime Minister, an Act was passed in Great
Britain which did much to improve the condition of Roman Catholics
in that country, and in the two following years, 1792 and 1793, great
FREEDOM OF THOUGHT A.VD RELIGIOUS OPINION. 775
changes were made in Ireland also. Roman Catholics were allowed
to carry on their religious services as they pleased, to dispose of their
property as they wished ; they were allowed on certain conditions to
vote for Members of Parliament, and to hold certain offices from
which they had hitherto been shut cut.
Pitt, who was always in favour of doing justice to the Roman'
Catholics, proposed to allow them to become Members of Parliament^
but to this King George III. would not agree, and Pitt, like an honest
man, resigned his office rather than consent to what he believed to
be unjust.
Little by little during the following years changes were made,
all of which helped to free the Roman Catholics from the laws of
which they complained. It was not, however, till the year 1828 that
the most important step of all was taken. It was in that year
that a famous and eloquent Irishman, named Daniel O'Connell, began
to demand in earnest what was called the Catholic Belief Bill — that is
to say, a Bill which was to free the Roman Catholics in Ireland once
fcr all from the restraints which still remained.
O'Connell succeeded in winning the support of the Roman Catholics
in Ireland, and threatened to break up the Union between Great
Britain and Ireland if Parliament refused to grant his demands. A
very large party in England agreed with O'Connell, but the Duke of
Wellington in the House of Lords strongly opposed him. At last, in
the year 1829, the Bill was passed. The old Oath of Supremacy was
altered, and a new one put in its place, which Roman Catholics were
willing to take. Roman Catholics were allowed to become ipembers of
either House of Parliament, and to be appointed to almost any office in
the State. The only three offices of importance which they were,
and still are, forbidden to fill, are those of Regent, Lord Chancellor of
England, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.1
But this is not quite the end of what has to be told of the steps
which were taken to give greater freedom in matters of religion and
opinion during the nineteenth csntury. It was not only the Roman
Catholics who had a grievance against the laws. There were two sets
of people who complained, and complained with reason. These were
the Jews and the Dissenters — that is to say, the members of Protestant
Churches other than the Church of England or the Established Church
of Scotland.
For many hundred years the Jews had received very hard treatment
in almost every part of Europe, and had been refused many of the
: By the Act of Settlement passed in the reign of Queen Anne (see page 568), it is provided
that the Sovereign must always be a Protestant.
776 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
rights of citizens. It is pleasant to think that England has now
thrown open every form of office * to the Jews. But the work was not
fully done till the year 1858, in which year the law was altered so as
to allow Jews to become members of the House of Commons. The
change, besides being a just and a right one, has been well rewarded,
for not only have the Jews living in this country helped by their skill
and enterprise to make it prosperous, but they are now to be numbered
among the most loyal subjects of the British Crown.
One more change had still to be made. Though nearly all the old
laws which interfered with the freedom of religious opinion had been
done away with, there remained one point which had to be dealt
with. At the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge it was still the rule
that every member of the University who wished to take what is called
the "Degree of Master of Arts,"- or who sought to be appointed to
certain positions in the University, must sign a declaration that he was
a Member of the Church of England. This declaration was called the
" Test," and several Bills were brought into Parliament at different
times for " the abolition of Tests." It was not, however, till the year
1871, when Mr. Gladstone was Prime Minister, that an Act was passed
which finally did away with the Tests at the Universities. Since that
time the appointments at the Universities have been open to all
students who show themselves fit by their learning, and now it can
fairly be said that full religious liberty is enjoyed by every man and
woman in the United Kingdom.
Freedom of Communication— The Steamboat and the
Locomotive.
" What could be more palpably absurd or ridiculous than the prospect
held out of locomotives travelling twice as fast as stage coaches ? ' -
Quarterly Review (time of the construction of the first railways).
Another freedom which came within the nineteenth century is the
freedom to move about with ease over long distances by sea and
by land at a very small cost. This freedom has for the most part been
given to us, not by changes in the law, but by the skill of inventors who
1 Except those mentioned above.
2 Usually written "M.A."
FREEDOM OF COMMUNICATION.
777
have found out the means whereby we can travel swiftly and surely by
the help of the power of steam.
The history of the steamboat begins a little before the nineteenth
century, for experiments with a boat moved by a steam engine are said
to have been made in 1787. It was not, however, till after 1800 that
steamboats really began to be used. The lead was taken in the matter
in the United States, where Fulton started a regular steamboat on
the River Hudson in 1807. Five years later the "Comet," the strange-
THE " COMET. >r
looking craft of which a picture is here given, began to run regularly or<
the Clyde. Here is a brief account of one of the earliest steamers.
It was written by a French officer in the year 1815, and describes a
voyage from Philadelphia to New York, in the United States : —
" The wheels, which are put in motion by the steam, are placed laterally beyond the
cabin, and give motion to the vessel by acting as oars. They are of iron, 20 feet in
diameter. Each of them is composed of two circles, 3 feet apart, between which are
fixed planks of wood 2 feet wide, which are rapidly moved by the steam. The continual
noise which this occasions resembles that of a watermill, and I am disposed to believe
that the wheels of such mills first gave the idea of employing wheels of a similar kind
which could be put in motion by steam. The centre of the boat is occupied by the
mechanism of the steam-engine. The machine, and consequently the progress of the
vessel, is stopped at pleasure by opening valves to let out the steam, and is set going in
an instant by closing them. The steamboat went at the rate of six miles an hour."
Z*
778 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
In describing the passage of the steamer through rough water the
writer becomes quite enthusiastic : —
" The steamer performed its voyage in a wonderful manner. . A real equinoctial
hurricane was blowing, and the boat was navigating in an open bay, with a violent
contrary swell, yet the motion was scarcely felt. Ennobled by the storm, the dashing of
its oary wheels gave a certain character of grandeur to its progress which under such
circumstances was really triumphant."
Once begun, the progress in building steamers has never stopped.
In 1838 the first screw-steamer was built on the River Thames, and the
screw has now become much more used than the paddle. Steamers
have lately been built over 200 yards in length, and capable of steaming
across the Atlantic in all weathers at the rate of 21 knots an hour.
Great as has been the change which has been brought about by the
invention of the steamship, that which has followed the invention of
the locomotive engine, has been greater still. It is to George Stephenson,
the working lad of Northumberland, that we owe this great invention.
He it was who first succeeded in planning and building an engine
which would run easily and pull a load after it.
In October, 1829, a great trial or competition was held between
four engines which had been designed by different makers. The
engines were the "Perseverance" the " Sanspareil" the "Novelty" and
the "Rocket." The "Rocket" was George Stephenson's engine. It
was soon seen which was the best of the four. The " Novelty " would
not budge, the "Perseverance" crept along at a foot's pace, the
"Sanspareil" broke down, but the "Rocket" not only ran with ease,
but pulled a train of waggons after it at the rate of thirty-five miles
an hour. This was indeed a triumph, and from that time forward
the success of the locomotive engine was assured.
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was opened on the i5th
September, 1830. A network of railways soon spread all over the
United Kingdom and soon also over Europe and America. In our day
there is not a country in the world where a railway is not to be
found, and yet so quickly has the change taken place that many a
man who has travelled from London to York in three hours and a half
can remember making the same journey in the old mail coach, when
the four horses changed every stage, and, driven at the best of
their speed, took twenty-four hours to cover the distance.
The law, too, has had something to do with giving us freedom to
travel about. The old Turnpikes on the high roads at which tolls were
collected have been done away with. The taxes upon travelling, which
are raised in the form of taxes upon tickets, have been reduced. The
THE "ROCKET.'
A GREAT NORTHERN ENGINE.
780
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
railway companies have been compelled by law to carry third-class
passengers at not more than a penny a mile, and many of the
companies actually charge less. Parliament has also compelled the
GEORGE STEPHENSON.
railways to run a number of special cheap trains for workmen on the
way to and from their work. Travelling, which sixty years ago was
the privilege of the few, has now become the daily habit of all classes,
rich and poor alike.
Freedom of the Press— Cheap Postagre-The Electric
Telegraph.
"/'// put a girdle round the earth
In forty minutes." — Shakespeare : Midsummer Night's Dream.
As far back as the time of Henry VIII. we read of greater freedom
being gained in the matter of printing books, and learnt how, for the
first time, leave was given to print the Bible in the English language.
After the invention of printing, all sorts of laws and rules forbidding
the printing of books were passed from time to time, but there were
always Englishmen to be found who wished to see these laws altered,
and greater freedom given.
During the time of the great war between England and France, the
rules against printing books of which the Government did not approve,
and especially against printing newspapers and political pamphlets,
were particularly strict. The Government feared lest men should
be persuaded by what they read to accept the teaching of the leaders
of the Revolution in France, and of their followers in this country.
It is doubtful whether very much good came of the interference
of the Government, or of the constant punishments of those who
offended, but as long as the war lasted very little was done towards
helping on the cause of Freedom of the Press. Indeed, much was done
to make it more difficult than before for the people of this country
to obtain books and news cheaply. To begin with, there was a heavy
tax upon paper; then again, every newspaper was taxed, till in 1815
there was actually a tax of fourpence a copy on every newspaper. So it
can easily be imagined that cheap newspapers such as we now have
were quite out of the question.
But during the nineteenth century very great changes were made.
The laws under which people could be punished for writing things
which were disagreeable to the Government were done away with,
and men can now write what they please, as long as it be not
calculated to injure other people in particular ways laid down by
the law, or to offend against good manners in a way which the law
forbids.
The tax upon newspapers was taken off altogether in 1870. In 1855
the last duties upon papers were taken off, and now not only can a
newspapsr be printed and sold without any tax being paid, but it
782 HISTORY of ENGLAND.
can be sent by post from one end of the United Kingdom to another
for a halfpenny.
Nor must we forget that great institution the Post Office, which has
done so much to spread information throughout the country and
throughout the world. At the beginning of the nineteenth century
the price for sending letters by post was so heavy that most people
never wrote letters at all, and those who did send them wrote as
seldom as they could. The letters travelled slowly by the coaches, and
thousands of places were without any post offices at all.
At length, however, the postage on letters was reduced to 4d.
(1839), and the very next year to id. It will help us to understand
what a great difference the cheap postage made if we compare the
number of letters sent in 1839, the last year of the fourpenny post, with
the number sent in 1899-00 under the penny postage. The number sent
in 1839 was 82,470,596. In 1899-00 the number of letters and post-cards
had risen to 2,647,100,000.
The great work which the Post Office has done in other ways, in
carrying parcels, in keeping a Savings Bank, and in helping people to
save their money, is well known, nor must the wonderful invention of
the Electric Telegraph be forgotten.
It was as late as the year 1838-39 that the first regular Electric
Telegraph was set up in this country. In the year 1868 the Post Office
undertook the management of the Telegraphs, and in 1899-00 more
than ninety million telegrams were sent. In 1858 the first Electric
Cable was laid between the United Kingdom and America, but it was
not till 1866 that a working cable was completed. There are now
(1897) nine cables from this country to America.
The cheapness of paper has led to the printing of millions of cheap
Books, some of them good and some of them bad, and few people are
now too poor to buy a book for themselves.
It must not be supposed, however, that because we can send letters
to each other every day for a penny, or can talk to the end of the
world in a few seconds by means of the telegraph wire, or because we
can travel from place to place at fifty miles an hour for a penny a
mile, that we have, for those reasons alone, become any better or much
wiser than our forefathers. What a man says and thinks will not be
wiser or better because he sends it over a telegraph wire. The man
himself will not lead a better life, or even be a much wiser man,
because he can travel from place to place instead of living quietly in
his own home.
What these great changes have done is to give us, in these days,
the power of learning, and the opportunities for gaining fresh information,
FREE TRADE. 783
which were denied to our forefathers. It must depend upon ourselves
and upon our teachers and leaders whether we really benefit by all
these wonderful discoveries and arrangements. Happily, there have
been wise men in this country who knew well that all these things
could be properly made use of if people were taught to understand and
to value them. We have read how, throughout the country, thousands
of schools have been set up, and how every child in England and
Scotland is now compelled to go to school, and we may hope, there-
fore, that as the means of obtaining knowledge is increased, so also
the power of the British people to make a right use of that knowledge
will be increased also. If this were not so, the freedom of which we
have spoken would be of very little use, and perhaps more of a curse
than a blessing.
Free Trade— Freedom of Parliamentary Voting*.
" Thy winds, 0 God, are free to blow,
Thy streams are free to drive and flow,
Thy clouds are free to roam the shy ;
Let man be free, his arts to ply.
Give us freedom I Give us freedom I
Free Trade." — Ebenezer Elliott : " Corn Law Hymns," No. 2.
In an earlier chapter we have read something about the Freeing of
Trade and Industry, a work which was almost entirely done during the
nineteenth century, though it had its beginning as far back as the year
1776, when a great writer, named Adam Smith, wrote a famous book
called " The Wealth of Nations." In this book he pointed out, among
many other matters, that it was a mistake to believe that the taxes or
duties put upon goods brought into a country were really paid by the
people of the country from which the goods came.
He showed, for instance, that if a tax of five shillings were put upon
a quarter of wheat coming from a foreign country, the result was that
the wheat cost the buyer five shillings more than it would have done
without the tax ; that the miller who bought it had to pay five shillings
more in his turn, and the shopman who bought the flour five shillings
more ; and, lastly, those who bought the loaves made out of the flour
had to pay five shillings more on the bread they ate. And thus it was
not the foreigner who had to pay the tax, but the people in this country
784 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
who were really taxing themselves. This seems clear enough now, but
it was a long time before the truth was understood.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century there was scarcely any-
thing which came into the country, and very few things which were
made in the country, which were not taxed one way or another. Here
is a famous passage which was written by the Rev. Sydney Smith, in
which he describes how everything in the country was taxed one way
or another : —
" Taxes upon every article which enters the mouth or covers the back, or is placed
under the foot ; taxes upon everything which it is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell, or
taste ; taxes upon warmth, light, and locomotion ; taxes on everything on earth and the
water under the earth, on everything that comes from abroad or is grown at home ;
taxes on the raw material ; taxes on every fresh value that is added to it by the industry
of man ; taxes on the sauce which pampers appetite and the drug that restores him to
health ; on the ermine which decorates the judge and the rope which hangs the criminal,
on the poor man's salt and the rich man's spice, on the brass nails of the coffin and the
ribbons of the bride — at bed or board, downlying or uprising, we must pay. The
schoolboy whips his taxed top ; the beardless youth manages the taxed horse with a
taxed bridle on a taxed road ; and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which
has paid 7 per cent., into a spoon that has paid 15 per cent., flings himself back upon his
chintz bed, which has paid 22 per cent., and expires in the arms of an apothecary who
has paid a license of £100 for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole property
is then immediately taxed from 2 to TO per cent. Besides the probate, large fees are
demanded for burying him in the chancel ; his virtues are handed down to posterity on
taxed marble ; and he is then gathered to his fathers — to be taxed no more." *
We have seen how, during the nineteenth century, nearly all the
taxes of which Sydney Smith so wittily speaks hav3 been done away
with. It is to Richard Cobden and his friends that this result is chiefly
due. The Abolition of the Corn Laws, which put duties upon corn, was
followed by the abolition of the duties on hundreds of other articles.
At the present time taxes are few in number, though some of them
weigh heavily upon those who have to pay them, but the duties upon
goods brought into the country have all been taken off, with the
exception of duties upon the following articles : wine, beer, and spirits,
tobacco, tea, lace, sugar, gold, and silver.'2 Thus we see that in the freedom
of our trade and commerce, as in so many other things, a great step
has been made during the present century.
We must find a place here for a mention of a step which was
taken in the year 1872, with the object of securing Freedom of
Parliamentary Voting. This was accomplished by the passing of " The
1 Edinburgh Review, 1820.
8 There are still a few small articles in which spirits are used on which duties are also paid.
FREEDOM OF PARLIAMENTARY VOTING. 785
Ballot Act." Up to the time of the passing of the Act votes for
Parliamentary elections were given openly ; that is to say, that the
name of the person who voted was taken down as well as that of
the person he voted for. This would seem at first sight a fair and
reasonable thing, for no one ought to be ashamed of using the right
which has been given him in the way he thinks wisest and best.
But, unfortunately, experience has proved that when votes are given
openly very bad consequences are certain to follow in many cases.
In the first place, people may be induced to give their votes to
a particular candidate for the sake of reward, or, in other words, may
take a bribe. Nothing can be worse than such a practice as this,
for the man who takes the bribe sells his honour, and instead of doing
that which he thinks is best for the nation does that which will
give him some personal advantage.
In the second -place, bribery gives great power to those who are
rich, and makes money the real ruler of the country. No greater
calamity can overtake a nation than that which befalls it when men
have power and influence, not because they are wise, good, or patriotic,
but because they are rich. It has been said that "the love of money
is the root of all evil," and there is a great deal of truth in the saying.
Besides the danger of bribery, there was always the danger of
" intimidation." Those who could not be bought were very often
compelled to give their votes through fear. Sometimes men voted
for those who employed them, or for their landlords, not because
they 'agreed with them, but because they were afraid of losing their
employment or their houses. Sometimes men were threatened with
actual violence if they did not vote in a certain way, and this was
nearly as bad as the bribery. Luckily, Englishmen are so stubborn
that it is not easy as a rule to drive them into doing or refusing
to do a particular thing by threats; but sometimes, no doubt, the
" intimidation " at elections was very serious.
In order to do away with these evils the Ballot Act was passed. It
provided that every man should give his vote in secret by marking a
cross on the ballot paper against the name of the candidate whom
he wished to see elected. The paper, when it has been marked,
is put into a sealed box or ballot box, and is mixed with hundreds
or thousands of other ballot papers. The result is that nobody can
tell how any particular person has voted, and it is equally useless
to bribe or to threaten a voter, for no one can tell after the election is
over how the person who has been bribed or threatened really voted.
Voting by ballot is now perfectly secret, and thus we have secured
" Freedom of Parliamentary Voting."
786 HISTORY OF ENGLAND,
The Improvement of Machinery.
"Richard Arkwright too will have his monument, a thousand years
hence; all Lancashire and Yorkshire, and how many other shires and
countries, with their machineries and industries, for his monument!" —
Carlyle : " Past and Present."
We have already spoken of some of the wonderful inventions of the
last hundred years — of the steamship, the locomotive engine, and the
electric telegraph. Something must also be said about those great
inventions which have helped to supply the people of this country
with good clothing at a low price, and which have enabled us to
become the manufacturers of clothing and of stuff goods for millions
of people outside the United Kingdom.
We must go back, however, further than the nineteenth century
for the first of these great inventions— namely, the spinning jenny, in-
vented by Hargreaves in 1767. This machine enabled cotton to be
spun by machinery instead of by hand, and as it had eight spindles
to carry the cotton " bobbins," or reels, it worked much faster than
the old hand-machines with a single spindle.
In 1769 Arkwright made great improvements in Hargreaves's
machines, and he also invented the plan still used in every cotton
and worsted mill, by which the thread is passed under a large
and then under a small roller for the purpose of drawing out and
lengthening the thread.
A few years later (1779) Crompton invented a machine which had
the advantages of Hargreaves's spinning jenny, and of Arkwright's
improvements. The new machine was known as the " spinning
mule."
Since that time enormous improvements have been made in all
the machinery both for spinning and weaving, and the general use
of steam-power to drive the mills has enabled manufacturers to
turn out millions of yards of cotton, woollen, and linen cloth at
prices which have put the material within the reach of all.
For some time those who were engaged in working the old hand-
machines were greatly opposed to the new machinery. They said
that the machinery would do away with the need for nearly all the
workers, and that thousands of men and women would be thrown
out of work and ruined. In many places they went so far as to get
up riots and to break and burn the new machines. It was not long,
WRITERS AND ARTISTS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 787
however, before it became clear that instead of fewer workers beiag
required, more were wanted than before, employment became more
regular, and wages steadily improved. And now only the most
ignorant or the most evil-minded persons endeavour to oppose new
machinery.
CHAPTER LXXVII.
LITERATURE AND ART SINCE 1714.
Writers and Artists of the Eighteenth Century.
" The end of all earthly learning being virtuous action, those skills
which serve most to bring forth that, have a most just title to be princes
over the rest ; wherein if we can show it rightly the poet is worthy to
have it before any other competitors."— Sir Philip Sidney: "The Uses oj
Poetry r
In an earlier part of this book two chapters were given up to a short
account of the great poets and writers, and of the artists and great men
of science, who lived during the Stuart Period. The number of pages
which were given up to this description was far too small to allow
of anything more than a mention of these famous men and their works.
And if it were hard to tell of the great authors and artists of the Stuart
time in a few pages, how much more difficult is the task when we have
to describe — or, at any rate, to name — the famous persons who have
adorned the Literature and the Art of the United Kingdom since
the accession of George I.
But what was said in a previous passage about great writers is
true. It is not possible to understand the history qf a country without
knowing something of the great writers and thinkers who lived in it ;
nor is it possible to understand the writings and the thoughts of those
great men unless we know something of the history of the country in
which they lived.
Little more can be told here of authors or artists, beyond the names
which they bore and the chief work which they did. There is only one
real way of knowing anything about an author or an artist, and that is to
read the books of the one and to look at the works of the other. Until
'/88
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
we have done this, it is no use thinking that we know anything of those
whose names are mentioned here.
We have already learnt something of the literary history of the
country down to the end of the reign of Queen Anne, and some of the
famous writers of that reign who lived on into the reign of George I.,
and later still, have been already mentioned. Among these are
Addison, Steele, Swift, Daniel Defoe, and Pope; and among the great
scientific men
there are also Sir
Isaac Newton and
Sir Christopher
Wren, both of whom
died in the reign of
George I. These,
therefore, will not
be mentioned
again now.
JOHNSON.
We will speak
first of Samuel John-
son, who was born
at Lichfield in
1709. Johnson, was
not only a great
writer, but a very
remarkable and in-
teresting man. The
history of his life
has been written
in a book which
has become very
famous — namely,
" BoswelVs Life of
Johnson.'" Boswell was the friend and companion of Johnson through-
out a great part of his life, and he wrote down for his book an account
of the sayings and doings of his famous friend, which helps us to
understand how great and how clever a man Samuel Johnson was.
Johnson's best-known writings are his famous "English Dictionary,"
his " Lives of the Poets," and his " Vanity of Human Wishes." He also
wrote a great many other books and papers. He was a friend of most
of the chief writers of his time, who liked and admired him, in spite of
DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON.
(After the portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds.)
GOLDSMITH, GRAY, RICHARDSON, SMOLLETT, FIELDING. 789
his somewhat rough manner and strange appearance. He died in the
reign of George III. (1784).
GOLDSMITH.
Samuel Johnson was a great Englishman. We have now to speak
of an Irishman who lived in Johnson's time, and whose name will be
remembered as that of a clever writer, and especially as the author of
one very famous book. This is Oliver Goldsmith (b. 1728, d. 1774),
who was born at Kilkenny. The great book which has made him
famous is " The V icar, of Wakefield " a sad and beautifully told story,
describing the life of a clergyman with all its sorrows and pleasures, its
small adventures and its trials. Scarcely less famous than " The Vicar
of Wakefield " is Goldsmith's play, " She Stoops to Conquer." " The
Deserted Village" is the best known of Goldsmith's poems.
GRAY.
There must be few readers of English, whether they be young or
old, who do not know the name and something of the work of Thomas
Gray (b. 1716, d. 1771). It was he who wrote the ever-famous poem
called " The Elegy in a Country Churchyard" which begins with the
well-known lines —
" The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way.,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me."
i
There is, indeed, scarcely a line in the whole poem which is not
well known, and many of the lines have become so familiar that they
are quoted by thousands of people who do not know whence they come.
Gray received his education at Eton College and at Cambridge, and
his poetry, and, indeed, all his works, show him to have been a man of
learning, fine feeling, and good taste.
THE NOVELISTS I RICHARDSON, SMOLLETT, FIELDING.
There are few people in this country now who do not find pleasure
in the reading of novels. It is to this time that we must look for
the real beginning of English novel-writing, and three famous names
must be remembered, the names of Samuel Richardson (b. 1689, d. 1761),
Tobias Smollett (b. 1721, d. 1771), and the greatest of the three,
Henry Fielding (b. 1707, d. 1754). There is much in the novels written
by these three writers . that does not suit the taste of those who
read novels in the present day. But the books they wrote are full
of good spirits, and truthful descriptions of men and things, and as
such will always be read bv many.
79°
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The most famous of Richardson's stories are two long novels, called
' Clarissa Harlowe " and " Pamela" " Roderick Random " and
"Peregrine Pickle''1 are perhaps the best known of Smollett's books.
Smollett also wrote a portion of a History of England, which was
greatly read at one time. More remarkable than any of the books
which have been
named was Field-
ing's great novel,
called "Tom
Jones" which was
published in 1749.
Artists:
HOGARTH,
REYNOLDS,
GAINSBOROUGH,
ROMNEY,
FLAXMAN.
We must leave
the authors for a
short time, and
say a word about
the artists. It
has often been
the work of great
writers to teach
useful lessons by
holding up the
faults and vices
of their time to
the laughter or
the indignation
of their readers.
The same work
was done in
another way by the famous painter, William Hogarth (b. 1697,
d. 1764). In a number of finely drawn and well-painted pictures
he caricatured the vices and the follies of his time. The subjects
which he drew are often unpleasant and sometimes terrible, but
no one who sees them can deny that they help to make what
is bad, hateful and ridiculous. Some of Hogarth's pictures are to
be seen in the National Gallery in London. In the same place may be
WILLIAM HOGARTH.
( From the print by Himself. )
EDMUND BURKE. 791
seen the pictures of a greater artist than Hogarth, namely, Sir Joshua
Reynolds (b. 1723, d. 1792), the most famous of all English portrait-
painters. Many of Sir Joshua Reynolds's pictures have been copied
so often that they are familiar to all Englishmen, and there can
be few who have not seen a print or a photograph of some famous
picture by Sir Joshua; but the best way of understanding what the
pictures were is to look at those which may be seen in the great public
picture galleries. Unluckily, Sir Joshua was not careful to use the
best paints, and, in consequence, some of his best pictures have faded,
and are not so bright and beautiful as they used to be.
GAINSBOROUGH, ROMNEY, FLAXMAN.
And here may be mentioned the names of two other famous painters
— Thomas Gainsborough, born at Sudbury in Suffolk, 1727, died 1788,
and of George Romney, the well-known painter of portraits, born in
Lancashire in 1734, died 1802. The name of John Flaxman (b. 1755,
d -1826) must be mentioned as that of one of the few great sculptors
our country has produced.
Edmund Burke.
"Burke is among the greatest of those who haue wrought marvels in
the prose of our English tongue."— J. Moiiey: " Life of Burke."
Outside the gate of Trinity College, the famous University of Dublin,
there stand two statues which everyone who has ever been in Dublin
knows well. They represent two great Irishmen, both of whom were
among the most famous writers of the day in which they lived. Of one
we have already spoken ; namely, of Oliver Goldsmith. The name
of the other may also be found in an earlier page of this book
(Chapter LXVII.), for Edmund Burke was a statesman as well as an
author. But no account of the great writers of our country could be
written without a mention of Edmund Burke and his works. He
wrote on many subjects, not only on politics and upon what he
thought to be the duty of the country at home and abroad, but upon
other matters which had nothing to do with politics — as, for instance,
his essay on " The Sublime and Beautiful." Nearly all he wrote he
wrote well, and few men did more to teach and guide the people
of his time than Edmund Burke.
Burke was for a long time a member of the House of Commons, and
792
HISTORY OP ENGLAND.
Photo: Lawrf nee, Dublin.
STATUE OF GOLDSMITH.
fighting against the violence and
cruelty of the French Revolution.
He had always been a friend of
reform and wise changes, but he
was a bitter enemy of lawless-
ness and violence. The famous
" Letters upon a Regicide Peace"
in which he attacked the Govern-
ment for making peace with the
French, had much to do in con-
vincing people in this country
that France was not to be
trusted, and that peace could
only be won after France had
been beaten. It is pleasant to
some of his speeches are among
the most splendid models of
writing to be found in the Eng-
lish language. There is reason,
however, to believe that Burke
was not a good speaker, but
that people preferred to read
his speeches rather than to listen
to them. It was Burke who was
foremost in urging George III.
to do justice to the American
colonists, and thus to avert the
danger of war. We have seen
how he failed. It was Burke,
too, who was the foremost in
fhoto : Lawrence, Dublin.
BURKE S STATUE.
COWPER, SHERMAN, CAMPBELL, LAM/;. 793
think that, while at times Irishmen of great ability have been enemies
of the welfare of the United Kingdom, and especially of England,
Edmund Burke, one of the noblest and ablest Irishmen that ever
lived, was not only a true lover and faithful servant of England,
but that he left no doubt of his goodwill when in one of his works
he said of England, " This is my adopted, my dearer and more
comprehensive country."
Cowper, Sheridan, Campbell, Lamb.
Wisdom married to immortal uerse." — Wordsworth.
We now come to the names of the great writers who, though they
were born in the eighteenth century, died in the nineteenth century, or
just before it began. It is a wonderful list of names: we have reason to
be proud of our country, which could produce in so short a time so
many famous names. No Englishman can know much about the
literature of the country until this " list of names," has become some-
thing more than a list, and until he has learned to know and love the
work of the great writers whose names are to be found in it.
COWPER.
William Cowper (b. 1731, d. 1800) was born at Berkhampstead. The
name of Cowper deserves to be remembered as that of a poet who,
though he cannot be ranked under the greatest names of English litera-
ture, was yet a man who wrote much that was elegant and finished, a
good deal that was really beautiful, and one poem, at any rate, which
will always be familiar to English readers. Among the best known of
his poems is the one which is quoted here, and which is an example of
Cowper's best work.
THE POPLAR FIELD.
" The poplars are felled, farewell to the shade,
And the whispering sound of the cool colonnade ;
The winds play no longer and sing in the leaves,
Nor Ouse on his bosom their image receives.
" Twelve years have elaps'd since I last took a view
Of my favourite field, and the bank where they grew ;
And now in the grass behold they are laid,
And the tree is my seat, that once lent me a shade.
794 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
" The blackbird has fled to another retreat,
Where the hazels afford him a screen from the heat,
And the scene, where his melody charm'd me before,
Resounds with his sweet-flowing ditty no more.
" My fugitive years are all hasting away,
And I must ere long lie as lowly as they,
With a turf on my breast, and a stone at my head,
Ere another such grove shall arise in its stead.
" The change both my heart and my fancy employs,
I reflect on the frailty of man, and his joys ;
Short-liv'd as we are, yet our pleasures, we see,
Have a still shorter date, and die sooner than we."
Many of his long pieces, such as " The Task" " Cowper's Table
Talk" and others, are not very much read at the present day.
One ballad, however, seems likely to make the name of Cowper
immortal, and that is the famous story of John Gilpin's Ride. Cowper's
" Letters " have been printed ; they are most beautifully written and
are of great interest.
SHERIDAN.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (b. 1751, d. 1816), one of the brightest wits
of the day, was born in Dublin and educated at Harrow School. He
was celebrated in his own day as an eloquent, quick-witted, reckless man
of fashion, as well as a very clever play writer. He is best known to
readers by his famous comedies— The Rivals, The School for Scandal, and
The Critic. These plays are still often acted at the present day, and
their brilliant humour will always make them favourites with play-
goers. Sheridan sat in Parliament as a Whig, and for a time filled
a Government office.
CAMPBELL.
Thomas Campbell (b. 1777, d. 1844), a Scottish poet who wrote much,
but of whose writing little will be remembered or deserves to be re-
membered. In one or two poems only did he achieve any real success.
It is by one or two such short poems—" The Battle of Hohenlinden " and
" The Battle of The Baltic" the latter beginning with the well-known
lines —
" Of Nelson and the North.
Sing the glorious day's renown,
that Campbell will be remembered, if he be remembered at all.
LAMB.
Charles Lamb (b. 1775, d. 1834). The writings of Charles Lamb have
given so much true pleasure to so many people that, though it cannot
SHELLEY, KEATS> BURNS^ Afro SCOTT. 795
be said he was one of our greatest writers, his name must be mentioned.
It is by his " Tales from Shakespeare " and his " Essays of Elia " that he
will be best remembered. It is in the "Essays of Elia" that Lamb's
own gentle, bright, somewhat sad nature shows itself at its best. Lamb
worked for the greater part of his life as a clerk in a Government office,
but he was happy in having the friendship and esteem of some of the
great writers of the day, who loved him for his gentle spirit and admired
him for his delicate and fantastic writing.
Byron, Shelley, Keats, Burns, and Scott.
"But now, thy youngest, dearest one has perished,
The nursling of thy widowhood, who grew
Like a. pale flower by some sad maiden cherished,
And fed with true hue tears) instead of dew ;
Most musical of mourners, weep anew !
Thy extreme hope, the loveliest and the last,
The bloom, whose petals nipt before they blew
Died on the promise of the fruit, is waste ;
The broken lily lies — the storm is overpast."
Shelley :" Adonais."
BYRON, SHELLEY, AND KEATS.
These three great poets lived and wrote at the same time, and per-
haps they have more in common with one another than any other writers
of their time. George Gordon, Lord Byron (b. 1788, d. 1824), wu"l always
be remembered as one of the most brilliant writers of English verse. He
was one of those poets whose work was even more read while he was
alive than after his death. His fame was not limited to his own
country, but his poems were read in every country in Europe. His life
was a strange one. Restless in mind and body, he travelled from
country to country with a heart seemingly full of discontent with
himself and the world, sometimes launching out into fierce attacks upon
his enemies, and at other times describing in splendid verse the sights
he saw and the thoughts which they raised in his mind. In Greece he
joined in the rising of the people against their Turkish oppressors, and
some of his finest poems are those which were written to reproach the
Greeks for so tamely submitting to the Turk, and to remind them of
the wonderful examples of their forefathers who fought for freedom.
Such are the famous lines —
796
HISTORY OF EXGLAND.
Hereditary bondsmen ! Know ye not
Who would be free themselves must strike the blow ?
By their right arms the conquest must be wrought ?
Will Gaul or Muscovite * redress ye ? No !
True, they may lay your proud despoilers low,
But not for you will Freedom's altars flame.
Shades of the Helots ! triumph o'er your foe :
Greece ! change thy lords, thy state is still the same ; •
Thy glorious day is o'er, but not thy years of shame."
"Childe Harold's
Pilgrimage" "The
Prisoner of Chilian"
"Don Juan" "The
Bride of Abydos" are
among the most
famous of Byron's
works. Of his shorter
poems many are fami-
liar to all readers.
Such is the poem
called "The Destruc-
tion of Sennacherib " :
" The Assyrian came down
like the wolf on the
fold,
And his cohorts were
gleaming in purple
and gold ;
And the sheen of their
spears was like stars
on the sea,
When the blue wave
rolls nightly*on deep
LORD BYRON (1814). Galilee."
(From the portrait by T. Phillips, R.A.)
Very familiar, too,
are the famous lines on the Battle of Waterloo, which are contained
in " Childe Harold " and the splendid poem on the sea, which begins
with the lines —
" Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean — roll !
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain ;
Man marks the earth with ruin — his control
Stops with the shore ;...."
1 France or Russia.
SnEf,LEY, KEATS, BURNS. 797
SHELLEY.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (b. 1792, d. 1822), one of the most musical and
at the same time most passionate of our English poets. In his short
life of thirty years he added to English literature work which will never
be forgotten, and which will always take its place in the first rank. His
famous poem " A dona'is " may be compared to Milton's " Lycidas." It
is an elegy or lament over the death of his friend, the poet Keats, who
died but a year before Shelley himself. Perhaps the most familiar of
Shelley's poems is his beautiful " Ode to the Skylark" which begins —
" Hail to thee, blithe spirit !
Bird thou never wert,
That from heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art."
Within a few months after Shelley had mourned the death of his
friend Keats, he himself was drowned in the Mediterranean near
Leghorn. It is a sad thing that so great a genius should have been
taken away so young.
KEATS.
John Keats (1795, d. 1821), another singer of wonderful power and
beauty, another name famous for all time, even though its bearer lived
a shorter time than Shelley. In twenty-five years Keats, the son of a
London livery stable-keeper, brought up as a surgeon's apprentice, rose
above all difficulties, and made the world know that he was a poet, and
a very great poet. For beauty of language, with the power to express
deep thoughts in sweet words and melodious tones, Keats has scarcely
a match in all our English poetry, rich as it is. "Endymion" and
" The Eve of St. Agnes " are among the best known of his longer poems,
and some of his shorter poems are of extraordinary beauty. It was
Keats who wrote the well-known lines —
" A thing of beauty is a joy for ever :
Its loveliness increases ; it will never
Pass into nothingness ; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing."
" Endymion''
Keats died of consumption, at Rome, in his twenty-sixth year.
BURNS.
Robert Burns (b. 1759, d. 1796) was above and before all the poet of
Scotland and Scotsmen throughout the world. He was the son of
798 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
an Ayrshire farmer, brought up in very poor circumstances to follow
the plough, of no education but that which he could gain for himself,
and what he could learn front the natural objects which he saw around
him. He spoke the language of the Lowlands of Scotland, and in
this language, familiar to Scottish ears but not always so familiar
to English readers, many of his poems are written. The poems,
and more especially
the songs, of Burns, are
known to almost every
Scotsman who can read ;
and, though no doubt
Burns has not so many
readers in England as
in Scotland, yet even in
the southern part of the
United Kingdom the
bright -spirited, liberty-
loving poet has thou-
sands of lovers and
admirers. Among some
of Burns's most famous
poerns are " The Cotter's
S at urd ay N i g ht ,"
"Highland Mary"
" Tarn o' Shunter " and
the famous patriotic
Scottish song begin-
ning, " Scots wha hae"
It was Burns, too,
who wrote the well-
known lines —
ROBERT BURNS.
(From the portrait by Alex. Nasmyth in the National
Caller), Edinburgh.)
" Is there, for honest poverty,
That hangs his head, and a' that ?
The coward slave, we pass him by,
We dare be poor for a' that !
For a' that, and a' that,
Our toils obscure, and a' that ;
The rank is but the guinea-stamp.
The man's the gowd for a' that.
" What though on namely fare we dine,
Wear hodden grey, and a' that ;
BURNS AND SCOTT.
799
Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine,
A man's a man for a' that !
For a' that, and a' that,
Their tinsel show, and a' that ;
The honest man, though e'er sae poor.
Is king o' men for a' that !
v.- * *
" A king can mak a
belted knight,
A marquis, duke, and
a' that ;
But an honest man's
. aboon his might
Guid faith! hemaunna
fa1 that!
For a' that, and a
that,
Their dignities, and
a' that,
The pith o' sense and
pride o' worth
Are higher ranks than
a' that."
SCOTT.
Walter Scott (b.
1771, d. 1832), born
only twelve years
later than Robert
Burns, who is the
second great Scot-
tish poet of whom
we have room to
speak here, lived on
long into the nine-
teenth century, and
died in 1832, the
year of the great Reform Bill. Who does not know the name
of Sir Walter Scott— " the Wizard of the North" as men sometimes
called him — the wonderful writer who gave us the great tales of
chivalry which are to be found in " Ivanhoe" " The Talisman,"
and " The Betrothed," or stories of Scottish life and adventure in
such novels as " Old Mortality ," " Rob Roy" and " Waverley" or
pictures of the England of a past day in " Woodstock" " Peveril of the
Peak" and " Kenilworth" ? Who has not read the stirring lines of
Sir Walter Scott's great poems, " The Lay of the Last Minstrel" " The
SIR WALTER SCOTT.
(After the portrait by Sir Henry Raeburn}.
8co HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Lady of the Lake" and " Marmion," the story of "Young Lochinvar "
who bore off his bride on the fleetest of steeds ; or the magnificent
description of the battle of Flodden Field and ihe dying moments
of Marmion, the proud English baron ?
Scott, indeed, was a writer for all readers of the English language,
of all ages and all tastes. A true Scot by birth and in feeling, no
man understood better than he the glories of England, or loved
its history and its people better. Here are some famous lines which
stir the blood of every British subject, from whatever part of the
Empire he comes : —
"Breathes there the man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
' This is my own, my native land ! '
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd,
As home his footsteps he hath turn'd,
From wandering on a foreign strand ? " 1
The Lake Poets— Southey, Wordsworth, Coleridge.
" Time may restore us in his course
Goethe's sage mind and Byron's force ;
But where will Europe's later hour
Again find Wordsworth's healing power?"
Matthew Arnold.
Among the famous group of poets known as " The Lake Poets "
are those who have been mentioned above. They obtained their
name from the fact that they all lived and wrote in the Lake District of
Cumberland and Westmorland.
Robert Southey (b. 1774, d. 1843) wrote an immense amount of both
poetry and prose. Although he became Poet Laureate, it is scarcely
probable that much of his poetry will live long. Among his most
famous works are " Thalaba the Destroyer,'" and " The Curse of Kehama,"
poems based upon old Asiatic stories. Of his prose works, perhaps
the best known and the best written is his celebrated " Life of
Nelson."
William Wordsworth (b. 1770, d. 1850), perhaps more than any of our
English poets, was a great lover of Nature and of Nature's beauties.
He wrote much, and much of his writing must always remain in the
1 " Lay of the Last Minstrel"
THE LAKE POETS. Soi
very first rank, both for depth of thought and for beauty of form. His
" Intimations of Immortality " is one of the most famous poems in the
English language. Among his other well-known works are " The
Excursion" " The Ode to Duty" " The Prelude" and many beautiful
sonnets. The following lines show us Wordsworth at his best, and
they may properly find a place here because they speak of Charles
Fox, one of the great men we have been reading about.
'•Loud is the Vale ! -the voice is up
With which she speaks when storms are gone,
A mighty unison of streams !
Of all her voices, one !
" Loud is the Vale ! — this inland depth
In peace is roaring like the sea :
Yon star upon the mountain top
Is listening quietly.
" Sad was I, even to pain depress'd,
Importunate and heavy load !
The comforter hath found me here,
Upon this lonely road ;
"And many thousands now are sad-
Wait the fulfilment of their fear ;
For he must die who is their stay,
Their glory disappear.
" A power is passing from the earth
To breathless Nature's dark abyss ;
And when the mighty pass away
What is it more than this —
* That man, who is from God sent forth,
Doth yet again to God return ? —
Such ebb and flow must ever be ;
Then wherefore should we mourn ? "
(Lines composed on reading of the expected death of Fox.)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (b. 1772, d. 1834), a friend of Southey and
Wordsworth. His work is less known than that of Wordsworth, nor
can it be said to be equal to it in any rerpect. But some of Coleridge's
writing is likely to be long remembered, and his strange and weird
poem " The Ancient Mariner" will always prevent his name being
forgotten.
A A
So 2 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Moore, Macaulay.— The Writers of Our Own Time.
MOORE.
Nor must we forget the name of Thomas Moore (b. 1779, d. 1852), or
''Tom Moore," as all the world will ever call him. Tom Moore, the
tuneful poet of Ireland, who though he lived little in his own country,
loved it well and wrote sweet songs about it, which every Irishman
knows, and sings, and rejoices in, and which will never be forgotten.
Among the many half-mournful, half-joyful poems and songs which
Tom Moore has given to the world are : — " Lalla Rookh" " Odes of
Anacreon" " Irish Melodies,'" " The Loves of the Angels"
MACAULAY.
Thomas Babington Macaulay (b. 1800, d. 1859) was a brilliant writer of
prose and of ballad verses, which have always been popular on account
of their spirit and the easy flow of their stirring lines. His " History of
England,'" which was never finished, is a very brilliant work. His
" Essays " form one of the most popular books in the English language.
The best known of all his works, perhaps, are his famous " Lays of
Ancient Rome" the story of " How Horatius kept the Bridge," and of
" The Battle of Lake Regillus" and his poems entitled " The Battle of
Ivry" and " The Armada" Macaulay was well known, not only as
a writer but as a politician. He sat for many years in Parliament,
was a member of the Government, and a Cabinet Minister.
THE WRITERS OF OUR OWN TIMES.
Now we have come almost down to our own day. Space will
not allow us to do more than mention some of the great men and
women whose names have become famous in the history of English
literature almost within our own lifetime. Dickens (b. 1812, d. 1870)
and Thackeray (b. 1811, d. 1863) are great novelists. Thomas Carlyle
(b. 1795, d. 1881), the author of a great work on the French Revolution,
was for many years occupied in preaching to Englishmen the need
for being honest, strenuous and true in all their work. Two great
poets, very different from one another, Tennyson (b. 1809, d. 1892) and
Browning (b. 1812, d. 1889), lived and wrote in the last quarter of the
nineteenth century. Matthew Arnold (b. 1822, d. 1888), whose poems
are less popular, but are read and greatly loved by many. These and
many other names are there, which show how rich our country
has been, and still is, in great writers ; and there can be no excuse
now for Englishmen and Englishwomen knowing nothing of the
best books in their language when all are open to them in every
public library, and most of them can be obtained for a few shillings
or for a few pence in any shop.
A LIST OF THE ANGLO-SAXON KINGS AND OF THE SOVEREIGNS
OF ENGLAND AND OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.
CHIEF KINGS OF THE HEPTARCHY.
KENT—
Hengist, 457-488 (first king).
yEthelbert, 565-616.
Eadbald, 616-640.
Egbert, 823.
SOUTH SAXONS —
Ella, 491-514 (first king).
Cissa, 514-584. [West Saxons.
Conquered 725 by. Ine, King of the
WEST SAXONS —
Cerdic, 519-534 (first king).
Cynric, 534-5°°-
Ceawlin, 560-591.
Cadwallo, 685-688.
Ine, 688-726.
Egbert, 800.
EAST SAXONS —
Erchenwin, 527-587 (first king).
Sebert, 597-614.
Egbert, 823.
NORTHUMBRIA (Bernicia and Deira) —
Ida (Bernicia), 547-560 (first king).
Ella (Deira), 560-588. [Deira)
^thelfrith, 593-617 (Unites Bernicia and
Edwin, 617-633.
Oswald, 635-642.
Oswy, 642-670.
Egfrith, 670-685.
Edbert, 737-757.
^Ethelred, 774-778. Restored 790-794.
Alfwold, 806-808.
Egbert, 827.
EAST ANGLES —
Uffa, 571-578 (first king).
Redwald, 599-624.
Beorna and ^Ethelred, 749-758.
Beorna alone, 758-761.
^thelred, 761-790.
^Ethelbert, 790-792.
Egbert, 823.
MERCIA —
Crida, 586-593 (first king).
Wibba, 597-615.
Ceorl, 615-626.
Penda, 626-655.
Peada, 655-656.
Wulfhere, 656-675.
^Ethelred, 675-704.
Cendred, 704-709.
iEthelbald, 716-757.
ilf (Cenulph), 796-819.
Ceolwulf, 819-821.
Beornwulf, 821-823.
Egbert (overlord), 823.
Ludecan, 823-825.
Wiglaf, 825-838.
KINGS AND QUEENS OF ENGLAND,
BEFORE THE CONQUEST —
Egbert, 827-836.
^thelwulf, 836-858.
jEthelbald, 858-860.
^Ethelbert, 860-866.
^thelred I., 866-871.
Alfred, 871-901.
Edward the Elder, 901-925.
Athelstan, 925-940.
Edmund I , 940-946.
Fdred, 946-955.
Edwy, 955-959-
Edgar, 059-075.
Edward the Martyr, 975-979.
^Ethelred II. (" The Unready "), 979, ;
posed 1013.
Sweyn (Dane), 1013-1014.
^Ethelred II., restored, 1014-1016.
Edmund Ironside, 1016 (reigned 7 months',.
Canute, i°i7-i°35- . [1035-1017.
Harold and Harthacanute, joint sovere gns,
Harold I., sole king, 1037-1040.
Harthacanute, 1040-1042.
Edward the Confessor, 1042-1066.
Harold II. 106^, killed at Hastings.
THE NORMAN KINGS —
William I., 1066-1087.
William II., 1087-1100.
Henry I., 1100-1135.
Stephen, 1135-1154.
IHE PLANTAGENET KINGS —
Henry II., 1154-1189.
Richard I., 1189-1199.
John, 1199-1216.
Henry III., 1216-1272.
Edward I., 1272-1307.
Edward II., 1307-1327.
Edward III., 1327-1377.
Richard II., 1377-1399.
HOUSE OF LANCASTER-
Henry IV., 1399-1413.
Henry V., 1413-1422.
Henry VI., 1422-1461 (deposed).
HOUSE OF YORK—
Edward IV., 1461-1483.
Edward V., 1483.
Richard III., 1483-1485.
THE TUDOR SOVEREIGNS —
Henry VII., 1485-1509.
Henry VIII., 1509-1547.
Edward VI., 1547-1553.
Mary, 1553-1558.
Elizabeth, 1558-1603.
THE STUART SOVEREIGNS—
James I., 1603-1624.
Charles I., 1625-1649
The Commonwealth, 1649-1660 —
Oliver Cromwell (Lord Protector),
1653-1658. [1658-1660.
Richard Cromwell (Lord Protector),
Charles II., 1660-1685.
James II., 1685-1688 (d. 1701). [d. 1694).
William III. and Mary, 1689-1702 (Mary
Anne, 1702-1714.
THE HANOVERIAN SOVEREIGNS —
George I., 1714-1727.
George II., 1727-1760.
George III., 1760-1820
George IV., 1820-1830.
William IV., 1830-1837.
Victoria, 1837-1901.
Kin? Edward VII., TOOL
INDEX.
Abbeys of England, 72
A'Becket, Thomas, 136, 137, 139, 141-145 ;
tomb, 223
Aberdeen, Lord, premier, 739, 750
Aboukir Bay, French defeat at, 688
Abraham, Heights of, 653
Acre, siege of, 690
Addington, 692
Addison, 578, 589
,/Ethelred " the Unready," 775 82
Afghan War, 756
Africa, discoveries in, 400, 404
African possessions, 761
Agincourt, 176, 229, 235
Agra, 704
Agricola, 9
Aix-la-Chapelle, Peace of, 638
"Alabama, The," arbitration, 757
Alban, first martyr in British Church, 23
Albemarle, Duke of (see Monk), 523
Albert, Prince Consort, 731
Albuera, battle of, 710
Alderman, 62, 100
Aldhelm, 103
Alexander III., King of Scotland, 198
Alexandria bombarded, 755
Alfred, the Great, 57-65 ; works of, 104
Alighur, 704
Alma, battle of the, 740
Alphege, death of, 81, 82
America, 380, 400, 404 ; British, 643, 662 ;
United States of, 643, 662, 667 ; indigna-
tion at the Stamp Act, 664
Amiens, peace of, 693, 704
Angelo, Michael, 417
Angevin Kings, 148
"Angle-land," 36
Angles, 26, 32, 34, 35, 38, 41
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 64, 104
Anglo-Saxon, or English invasion, 2, 26-39 >
speech, 108
Anglo-Saxons, manners and customs of, 95
Anjou, 127
Anne, Queen, 431, 552, 556, 558-569
Annuity, life, borrowing on, 617
Anti-Corn-Law League, 732
"Apprentice Boys" of Derry, 546
Apprentices on ships, 504
Arabi Pasha, 755
Arc, Joan of, 239, 240 ; trial of, 241
Archbishop of Canterbury, 73
Architecture, Norman, 68, 424; Elizabethan,
424
Areyle, Earl of, 533, 534
Areyl^, Mary of, 484, 522
Ark wright, 786
Arlington, Earl of, 526
Amiada, the Spanish, 382-393
" Armed Neutrality," the, 690
Army, a standing, 281-283 > head of the, 308
Arnold, Matthew, 802
Art in the Tudor period, 416 ; under the
Stuarts, 600 ; since 1714, 790
Arthur, Duke of Brittany, 154
Arthur, King, legend of, 102
Arthur, Prince, Henry VIII.'s son, 285
Arundel, Earl of, 221
Ashley (Lord Sriaftesbury), 528
Asia, discoveries in, 404
Assaye, battle of, 704
Assizes, 165, 166
"Association," the, and Cromwell, 484
Atheling, Edgar (see Edgar)
Athelney Marshes, 60
Athelstan, 66, 69, 72
Attainder, Bill of, 474 ; passed in Ireland, 548
Augustine, 42-44
Austerlitz, 699
Australasian Colonies, 759
Australia, 400, 404
Aylesford, battle at, 27
Babington's conspiracy, 375
Bacon, Francis, " Essays," 414, 445, 446, 579
Bacon, Nicholas, 363
Bacon, Roger, 214
Badajoz, 711
Badon Hill, battle of, 32
Baker, Major, and the siege of Derry, 584
Balaclava, 740
Balliol, Edward, 210
Balliol, John, 198, 202, 203
Ballot Act, 755, 785
Bannockburn, 206-208
Banqueting Hall, the Whitehall, 493, 495
Bards, British, 32 ; Welsh, 193
" Barebone's Parliament," 510
Barnet, battle of, 252
Barons, the, 136, 156, 160, 178, 180, 182, 204, 2:8
Bastille, the, 679
" Battle Abbey," 94, 107
Bayard, Chevalier, 295
Beachy Head, action off, 551
Heaconsfield, Lord, 755 ' (see Disraeli)
Beadle, 100
Beaton, Cardinal, 322, 323
Beaufort, Henry, Bishop of Winchester, 239
Beaufort, John, Earl of Somerset, quarrel
with Richard of York, 249
Beaufort, Margaret, 261
Beauforts, the, 247
Beauvais, Bishop of, condemns Joan of Arc,
242
Bede, 42, 45, 49, 103
Bedford, Duke of, Regent, 239, 243, 245, 261
Benevolences, 253, 280
Bengal, Conquest of. 648
8o6
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Berkeley Castle, Edward II. at, 208
"Berlin Decree," the, 705, 712
Berwick-on-Tweed, attacked by Edward I., 199
" Bess, Good Queen," 359
Beverley, 69
Bible, 225, 309, 408, 409, 413, 450, 584
Bill of Attainder, 419
Bill of Rights, 545, 574
Bishops, 23, 136, 231, 233, 330, 348, 538
Bishop's Court, the (note), 138, 140
" Black Death," the, 224
Blackheath, Wat Tyler at, 218
Black Hole of Calcutta, 647
Blake, 504, 505, 506, 511, 586
Blenheim, battle of, 563, 564, 565
Blondel and Richard I., 152
Blood circulation, discovery of, 598
Bloody Assize, 534
Bliicher, 716, 717
Bluecoat boy's dress, 424
Boadicea, 16, 17
Boer rebellion, 756, 758
Boethius, 104
Bohun, Mary, wife of Henry IV., 230
Bohun, Sir Henry de, and Bruce, 206
Boleyn, Anne, 292, 303, 305, 316, 317
Bolingbroke, Henry of, 221, 222 (see Henry
Bolingbroke, Lord, St. John, 566, 568, 569, 607
Bombay, Plague in, 524
Bonner, Bishop of London, 330, 348
Books, Famous, of Tudor times, 408
Border between England and Scotland, 196
Borodino, 711
Borough members, 182
Boswell, 788
Bosworth Field, battle of, 248, 262, 269
Botany Bay, 759
Bothwell, Earl of, 372
Boulogne, 323, 696
Bourchier, Elizabeth, 480
Boyne, battle of the, 552
Bradshaw, 492, 518
Bramham Moor, battle of, 229
Brandon, Charles, Duke of Suffolk, 331
Brazil, 400
Bretigny, peace of, 215
Bret, Richard le, 142-145
Bright, 732
Britain and the French Revolution, 682
Britain, external growth of, 630, 638, 642-644,
650, 654, 704
British Christians put to death, 23, 41 ; legends,
32 ; districts in England, 192
British Empire, 761-765
British Guiana, 704
British North America Act, 730
Britons, ancient, 7, 10-13, 3°> 33~35» 44» t9I» *92
Brittany, 34, 285, 286
Browning, 802
Bruce, David, 210
Bruce, Robert, 198, 199, 202, 203-208
Bruges, 254, 255
Brunanburgh, battle at, 69
Buckingham, Duke of, 458-462, 466, 526
Bull, Papal, 146
Billow, General, 717
Bunker's Hill, battle at, 666
Bunyan, John, 451, 582, 583
Buonaparte, Napoleon, 685, 688, 690, 694, 701,
709, 710, 712, 715, 717, 718
Burgesses, 182
Burgh-on- Sands, 200
Burgoyne's, General, surrender, 667
Burgundy, Duke of, 210, 242, 255
Burleigh, Lord, 362
Burke, Edmund, 664, 791-793
Burnet, Gilbert, Bishop, 589
Burns, 797-799
Bute, Lord, unpopularity of, 66 1
Buxton, Sir Fowell, 770
Bye plot, the, 438
Byng, Sir George, 614, 641
Byron, 795, 796
Cabal, the, 526, 527, 575
Cabinet Council, 526, 575
Cable, Electric, the first, 782
Cabot, 400
Cade, Jack, marches against London, 243
Cadiz, expedition to, 461
Caedmon, 102
Calais, 215, 244, 278, 288, 354
Calder, Sir Robert, 696
Calendar, change in, 427
California, 402
Calvin, 365-370
Camps, Roman, 18
Campbell, Scottish poet, 794
Campbell, Sir Colin, and Lucknow, 746
Camperdown, action off, 688
Canada, 400, 652, (62, 730
Canning, 701, 722, 723
Cannon, early, 214
Canterbury, 42, 81
Canterbury, Archbishop of, 73, 81
Canterbury Cathedral, 132-135, 141 (note)
"Canterbury Tales," the, 223
Canute, 84, 85
Cape Breton Island, 638
Cape Colony, 761
Cape Town, 705
Caractacus, 15
Cardiff Castle, 125
Carisbrooke Castle, Charles I. at, 491
Carlyle, 802
Carnarvon Castle, 194
Caroline, Queen, and Walpole, 626
Carr, Robert, 445
"Casket Letters," the, 375
Cassivelaunus, 8
" Caster," 19
Castlereagh, Lord, 701
" Castra," 18
Catesby, 441-443
Catharine of Aragpn, 285, 292, 294, 303, 305
Catherine de Medicis, 369
Catherine of Braganza, 526
Catherine of France, wife of Henry V., 236,
245, 246, 261, 269
Catholic Relief Act, 676 ; emancipation, 723, 775
Cavaliers, 457, 469, 482, 520
Cawnpore, 745
Caxton, William, 254-256
Cecil, Robert, first Earl of Salisbury, 394, 396,
437> 438, 442» 445
INDEX.
807
Cecil, William, 362 (see Burleigh, Lord);
Chalgrove Field skhmish, 484
Channel Islands, 244
Charlemagne, 51, 52
Charles I., 170, 446, 454, 456, 458, 460, 461,
478, 479, 482, 490, 492, 493
Charles II., 170, 497, 499-5<.i, 516-518, 522,
526, 529
Charles, King of the Franks, 51, 52
Charles VI., King of France, 2?i, 236, 239
Charles VII. of France, 243
Charles IX., 378
Charles, the Simple, 68
Charlotte, Queen of George III., 659
Charter, the six points of the, 731
Chartists, the. 731, and their petition, 736
Chatham, importance of, 28
Chatham, Earl of, 66^ (see Pitt)
Chaucer, 223 ; and the English language, 224
" Chesapeake," the, 712
" Chester," 19, 28
Christ, birth of, 14
Christchurch, 120
Christianity, conversion to, 2 ; introduced by
Romans 23 ; expulsion of, 34
Christians, Early British, 23, 41 ; Saxon, 40
Christmas and Druidism, 13
Christ's Hospital, 424, 426
Chronicler, 102
Church, the, 137, 234, 307, 308, 316, 330, 334,
520
Churches, early, 23, 34, 41, 68
C hurchill, Lord (see Marl borough)
Churchmen, 139, 140
Cintra, convention of, 708
Cities in the Stuart Period, 599
Ciudad Rodrigo, 711
Civil Judge, 167
Civil War, the, 482, 485
Clarence, Duke of, death of, 758
Clarence, George, Duke of, 553
Clarence, Lionel, Duke of, 226
"Clarendon, Constitutions of," 140
Clarendon, Lord, 520, 524, 525, 527, 586
Clarendon's*" History of the Rebellion," 484
Clarkson, Thomas, 770
Claudius, 13-16
Claverhouse, Earl of, 532, 550, 551
Clement VII., Pope, 303, 306, 316
Clergy and King John, 160
Clifford, Lord, 526
Clive, Robert, 643-650
Clonmel taken, 499
Cobden, 732
Cobham, Lord, 233, 438
Coeur de Lion, 148 (see Richard I.)
Coldstream Guards, 520
Coleridge, 801
Colet, 314
Coligny, Admiral, 378
Collingwood, 683, 698
Columbus, 400
"Comet, The." steamboat, 777
Common Pleas, Court of, 1-65, 1(6
Commons, House of, 170, 179, 181, 576, 627
(see also House of Commons)
Commonwealth, the, 496-514; Great Seal of
the. 496, 497 ; naval flag of the, 505
Compiegne, 242
Compositor's case, first in England, 256
lower" and " upper," 257
Conciliation Bill, 667
Congreve, William, 588
Consols, 616
Constantinople taken by the Turks, 258
Constitution, the, 433
Constitutional History of the Stuart Period,
573:577.
Constitutional king, 545
" Continental System," 706
" Convention," the, 550
Cook, Captain, 759, 760
Coote, General bir Eyre, 654
Cope, Sir John, 633
Corn Laws, repealed, 735
Cornwall, and the Britons, 191
Coronation chair, 199
Correggio, 417
Corte Real, 400
Cortez, Herman, 401
Corunna, 708
Costumes at the Court of the Stuarts, 456
Cotton famine 753
Council, King's, 328, 330, 337
Council of State under the Commonwealth, 498
Counsellor, Richard, 401
County members, 182
Court of H igh Commission, 365
Covenant, the, 473, 500
Coverley, Sir Roger de, 590
Covenanters, the, 473, 484, 485, 500, 520, 532
Coverdale, Miles, 409
Cowley, Abraham, 588
Cowper, Lord, 606
Cowper, poet, 793
Cranmer, Thomas, 308, 315, 348, 351, 352
( "ranmer's Bible, 409
Cre"cy, battle of, 211-216
Crescent and Cross, 150
Crimean War, 739
Crompton's spinning mule, 786
Cromwell, Oliver, 480, 483-485, 491, 498, 5oc\
506, 513, 518
Cromwell, Richard, 513, 520
Cromwell, Thomas, 307, 308, 315, 318, 320, 321
Cross of St. Andrew, 324
Cross of St. George, 324
Cross-bow and long-bow, 212
Crown judge, 166
Crown land, 121
Crusade, 151
Culloden Moor, 635-637
Cumberland, Duke of, 635, 637
Curfew, 109
Customs duties, 458, 532, 626
Cuthbert, 46, 49
Danby, Lord, 527
" Dane-geld," 80
" Danelagh," the, 66
Danes, 2, 31, 53-56. bo, 62, 69, 80
Darien, Isthmus of, 570
Darnley, Henry, 371, 372
Dauphin, the. 329
Davis, John, 388, 403
De Herelico Combvrendo, 231, 233
Debts, the -country's, 616
8oS
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
337-340
Declaration of Independence, 527, 538, 667
" Defender of the Faith," 306
Defoe, 591
Delhi, 704, 746
Denmark, 53
Derby, Earl of, premier, 738, 734
Derwentwater, Lord, 611
Dettingen, battle of, 631
Devonshire. Duke of, 661
Diaz, Bartholomew, 400
Dickens, 802
Digby, Sir Everard, 442, 443
Diocletian, 23
Disraeli, Benjamin, 750, 754, 756
" Divine right," 435
Domremy, 239
" Dorsaetas," 38
Douglas, Earl of, 228, 229
Douglas, James, 206
Dover cliffs, 6
Drake, 381, 387, 388, 390, 292> 402> 4°3, 4<M
Dress in Tudor times, 422-424
Drogheda, siege of, 499
Druids, 10
Dryden, 578, 584-586
Dublin Castle, 547
Dudley, Earl of Warwick, 330, 331,
Dudley, Lord Guilford, 331, 340
Dudley, Lord Robert, 363
Dunbar, Edward II. at, 208 ; battle of, 500,
501, 513
Duncan, Admiral, 687, 688
Dunelm, 49
Dunstan, 72 ; his character, 73 ; leaves the
court, 79
Durham Cathedral, 47, 104
Durham, Lord, 730
Dutch, the, 501, 523, 686-688
"Earl," battle of, 84
East Anglia, 49
East India Company, 403, 643 ; ended, 748
Edgar Atheling, 84, 87, no, in, 125
Edgar, King, 73, 75, 77
Edgehill, battle of, 483
Edict of Nantes, 379
Edinburgh, 373, 500
Edith, Godwin's daughter, 86
Edmund, King, 72
Edmund, the " Unready's " son, 82 ; " Iron-
side," 84
Edmund, Earl of Richmond, 261
Edred, King, 72, 73
Education, 138, 426
Education Act, 755
Edward, Black Prince, 211, 213, 216, 217
Edward the Confessor, 84, 86, 87
Edward the Elder, 66
Edward, Henry III.'s son, 184, 185
Edward, Prince of Wales, 194
Edward I., 189; and the Welsh, 192-194; and
Scotland, 194, 198; death, 200
Edward II., 202, 204, 205, 208
Edward III., 210-216, 217, 245, 246
Edward IV., 251, 252
Edward V., son of Edward IV., 253, 260, 264,
270, 275
Edward VI., 320, 323, 327, 328, 332
Edward VII. ,758
Edwy, King, 73
Egbert, King of the West Saxons, 51, 52, 53, 56
Egypt, expedition to, 757
Eight-hour day, 773
Eisteddfod, 193
Elba, 712
Eldermen, 97
Elders, 97
Eleanor of Provence, 179
Election petitions, 439
Eliot, Sir John, M.P.,468
Ellandune, battle of, 52
Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., 253, 264,
Elizabeth, daughter of James I., 447
Elizabeth, Queen, 317, 324, 327, 329, 356,
359, 361, 363» 364, 366, 374-376, 377-381,
. 384, 393, 395, 396
Elizabethan style of architecture, 424
Elliot, General, at Gibraltar, 671
Emma of Normandy, 82, 84
"Empire, the," 277, 293
England, Roman marks in, 17-22 ; origin of
the name, 36 ; condition of, after battle of
Hastings, 107 ; British districts in, 192 ;
and France, 210
English defeated by the Welsh, 193 ; sailors
and French, 211 ; attacks on the French
coast, 229 ; dominions in France, time of
Henry V., 234 ; language, 98, 224
Englishman's rights, an, 162
Enniskillen, 546, 548
Eorls, 69
Erasmus, 314, 316
" Ermine Street," the, 22
Essex, Earl of, and Elizabeth, 395, 480
Essex, Earl of, and Cromwell, 488, 529
Essling, battle of, 709
Established Church, the, 436
Eton College, 416
Fugene, Prince, of Savoy, 5*62, 564
Europe, Great Powers in, 277, 293 ; time of
George I., 613-615 ; central, after Seven
Years' War, 639
Evelyn, John, 586
Evesham, battle of, 184
Exchequer, court of, 165, 166
Excise duty, 626
Eylau, battle of, 702
Factory Act, 726
Fairfax, Lord, 485, 487, 488, 489, 491
Falkirk, battles of, 200, 635
Fa kland, Lord, 484. 486, 586
" Famous 'Fifteens," the, 714
Fawkes, Guy, 441-443
Fearney, Nelson's coxswain, 686
Felton, 466
Fenians, the, 755
Ferdinand of Spain, 285
Feudalism, 114-117
Feudal system, 114-117; law, 163
Feversham, Lord, 534
Flags, 324
Flaxman, John, 791
Hodden, battle of, 295
Fief, the, 116
INDEX.
809
Fielden, Mr., 773
Fielding, novelist, 789
Field of the Cloih of Gold, 302
" Fifteen, The," 176, 608-611
" Fifteens," the famous, 176
Finch, Sir John, Speaker, 466-468
Fire of London, 525
Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, 316, 317
Fitzgerald, Lord Thomas, 322
Fitzstephen, William, 143
Fitzurse, Reginald, 142-145
Fitzwalter, 161
Five Mile Act, the, 522
Folk-Moot, 97
Fontenoy, battle of, 631
Formigny, battle of, 243
Forster, VV. E., and education and the ballot,
Fortescue, Sir John, 438, 439
" Forty-five," the, 633-637
" Fosse Way," the, 22
Fotheringay Castle, 375, 376
Fountain's Abbey, 72
Fox, Charles James, 672, 692, 699, 700
France, 127, 190, 202, 209, 210, 234, 242, 323,
354. 552, 560; 1793 to 1815, 629, 643, 684-
719, 736, 738 (see also French)
rrancis II. of France, 369
Fr
Franks, 42
Frederick V., Elector Palatine, 447
Frederick, Prince of Wales, 626, 628
Frederick the Great, 629, 654
" Free Parliament," 510, 513, 514
Free Trade, 783
Freedom, growth of, 765
Freedom of opinion, 336
Freedom of parliamentary voting, 784
Freemen, 168
Freia, 36, 40
French Revolution,- 673, 678-683 ; and British
freedom, 767
French language in England, 224 ; attacks on
the English coast, 229; losses at Crecy,
214 ; at Agincourt, 235 ; fleet in the
Channel, 551 ; in Ireland, 676 ; invasion of
England, 696 (see also France)
Friday, origin of name, 36
Friends, Society of, 770
Frobisher, 381, 388, 401, 402
Furlong, 100
Gaelic, 196
Gainsborough, Thomas, 791
Gallia, 5
Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, 330, 348
Gascoigne, Lord Chief Justice, and Henry V.,
232
Gaul, 5
Gaunt, John of, 217, 220, 222, 245, 246
Gaveston, Piers, 204
Geddes, Janet, 472
Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, 127. 131
George I., 560, 569, 603, 604, 621
George II., 622
George III., 170, 659
George IV., 721, 722, 723
Gibraltar, 564, 565, 568, 671
Gilbert, Humphrey, 402
Gladstone, W. E., 739, 755, 756, 757
Glastonbury, 72
Glendower, Owen, 228, 229
Gloucester, Duke of, Regent, 239, 245, 252, 261
Gloucester, Duke of, Thomas, 217, 220, 221
Gloucester, Richard, Duke of, 253, 260 (tee
Richard I II.)
Goa, 400
Goderich, Lord, 723
Godolphin, Lord, 556, 560
Gods of the Saxons, 36
Godwin, Earl, 85, 86, 87
" Golden Hind," the, 402
Goldsmith, 789, 791, 792
Good Hope, Cape of, 400, 704
Goodwin, Sir Francis, and James I., 438, 439,
Gordon, General, 757
Gordon Riots, 668
Gough, Sir Hugh, in India, 743
Government, head of the, 308
" Grace, Act of," 551
Grammar schools, 426
Grattan, Henry, 676
Grattan's parliament, 675
Gray, Thomas, 789
Gregory the Great, 41
Gregory XIII., Pope, 378, 427
Grenville, George, succeeds Pitt, 661 ; his
Stamp Act, 663
Gretna Green, 196
Grey, Lady Jane, 331 ; Queen, 337, 338-3/2
Grey, Lord, and Reform, 724
Grim, Edward, 143
Grouchy, Marshal, 717
Guadeloupe, 654
Guernsey, 229"
Guienne, 210, 243, 244
Guise, Duke of, 354, 378
Gunpowder, 214, 257
Gunpowder Plot, the, 441-443
Guthrum, 62
Habeas Corpus Act, 527, 536, 574
Hadrian, 22
Half-timers, 772
Halidon Hill, 215
Halifax, Lord, 554
Hampden. John, 471, 477, 483, 484, 485
Hampton Court, 302, 437, 440, 450, 491
Hargreave's spinning jenny, 786
Harlech Castle, 130
Harley, (see Oxford, Earl of)
Harold, Godwin's son, 86, 87, 90, 91
Harold, King, 93, 94
Harold, son of Canute, 85
Harrison, Colonel, 508, 509
Harrow School, 426
Harthacanute, 85
Harvey, William, 598
Hastings, battle of,-93, 94, 107, in
Hatfield House, 424
Hathaway's, Anne, cottage, 411
Havelock, Sir Henry, and Lucknow, 746
Hawke, Admiral, 654
Hawkins, John, 388, 391, 402
Hawthorn bush, crown in the, a Tudor
emblem, 262
8io
Jf i STORY OF ENGLAND.
Hazelrig, 477
Hedingham Castle, Henry VII. at, 279
Hengist, 27
Henrietta Maria, 446, 455, 456
Henry I., 118, 124, 126, 128, 130
Henry II., 128, 131, 135-146
Henry III., 177, 182, 184, 186
Henry IV., 226, 227-230
Henry V., 232, 233, 234-239, 245, 261
Henry VI , 239, 245, 250-252
Henry VII. ,262-288
Henry VIII., 286, 290, 292, 299-305, 306, 316,
318, 320 322, 324, 327
Henry II. of France, and Elizabeth, 363
Henry IV. of France and Navarre, 378, 379
Henry V., Emperor of Germany, 126
Hereford, Duke of, 222 (see Bolingbroke)
Hereward the Wake, in, 112
Hermit, Peter the, 149
Herrick, Robert, 588
Highlanders, 196
Hill, Abigail, 566
Hoche, General, 676
Hogarth, William, 790
Hohenlinden, battle of, 690
Holbein, Hans, 416
Holland, 501, 523, 526
Holies, Denzil, M.P., 468, 477
Holmby House, 490
Holy Island, 47, 48, 49
Holyrood Palace, 371
" Homage, doing," 116
Home Rule Bill, 758
Homildon Hill, battle of, 228
Hong Kong, plague in, 524
Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester, 348, 349
Horsa, 27
Hotham, Sir John, 478
Hotspur, Harry, 222, 228, 229
Hounslow, 537, 540
House of Commons, 170; and James I., 444,
and Charles I., 458-462 (see Commons)
Howard, Catharine, 292, 321
Howard, Lord Charles, 387, 388, 390, 391, 392
Howard, Lord Thomas, at Flodden, 296
Howe, Lord, 686, 687
Huguenots, 368, 377, 378, 459, 464
Humbert, General, 677
" Hundred Days," the, 714
Huntingdon, Eatl of, 228
Hurst Castle, Charles I. at, 491, 492
Huskisson, Mr., Death of, 724
Hyde, Sir Nicholas, 464, 471
" Impeachment," 474
Imperial Parliament, 179
Independents, The, 486, 487, 488, 490, 491,
497. 533
India, 401, 642, 645, 647-649, 704
Indian Mutiny, 744
Inglis, Brigadier, 746
Inkerman, 742
Inquisition, the Holy, 347
lona, 48
Ireland and Christianity, 35 ; and early British
history, 101 ; time cf Henry VIII., 322 ;
rebellion in, under O'Neil, 394; settlement
in north of, 452 ; and Cromwell, 498 ; civil
war in, 537 ; under William and Mary,
546 ; union with, 672, 673, 677 ; potato
famine in, 735
Irish parliament, 546
Ironsides, Cromwell's, 486
Isabella of France, 221, 228
Isabella of Spain, 285
Ivry, battle of, 379
Jacobite rebellion, 176
Jacobites, 546, 554 ; English, and the Old Pre-
tender, 610
Jaffa, battle of, 151
Jamaica, capture of, 511
James I., 208, 284, 396, 431, 433, 434, 437, 439,
444, 446, 450, 452
James II., 526, 527, 529, 531, 532, 536-541, 556
James of Scotland an English prisoner, 229
James IV. of Scotland, 275, 284, 295
James V. of Scotland, 322
"Jarl,"84
Jeffreys, Judge, 534, 537
Jena, battle of, 702
"Jenkins's Ear," 628
ennings, Sarah, 552 (see Marlborough)
ervis, Sir John, 686
ews, disabilities of, 774-776
oan of Arc, 239, 240 ; trial of, 241
ohn, King, 146, 147, 154, 155, 160, 161
ohnson, Dr. Samuel, 788
onson, Ben, 415, 416
ubilees of Victoria, 758
udge of Assize, 166, 167
udges of the Queen's Bench, 166
ulius Caesar, 4-8, 9
ury, trial by, 99, 169
utland, 35
utes, 26, 31, 32, 34, 35, 38 '
uxon, Bishop of London, 493,
520
Keats, 797
Kenilworth Castle, 185
Kent, Earl of, 228
Kildare, Earl of, and Lambert Sirnnel, 272
Kilkenny taken, 499
Killiecrankie, Pass of, 550
Kimbolton, Lord, 477
King's Cliffe, 100
King's College Chapel, Cambridge, 424, 425
Kingsley's, Charles, " Westward Ho," 387
Kings of England, title of, 199, 200
Kirk-o'-fields, 372
Kneller, Sir Godfrey, 600
Knevett, Sir Thomas, 442
Knights of the Shire, 182
Knox, John, 370
Lake, General, 676, 704
Lake poets, the, 800
Lamb, Charles, 794
Lambert, General, 491
Lancaster, House of, 245
Langley, Edmund of, Duke of York, 246
Langside, battle at, 374
Langton, Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury,
161
Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, 348, 349, 350
Latin, 136, i6a
INDEX.
8n
Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, 463, 489,
471-476
Lauderdale, Earl of, 520, 526
Laufeldt, battle of, 638
Law courts, 122, 166
Lawrence Sir Henry, 746
" Leased, ' 97
Legions, Roman, 7
Leicester, Earl of, and Elizabeth, 395
Lely, Sir Peter, 600
Lenthall, Speaker, 478, 479, 508, 513
Leopold, Archduke of Austria, 152
Leslie, General Alexander, 473
" Let," 97
" Levellers," the, 498
Lexington, British defeat at, 666
Liberty of conscience, 336
Ligny, battle of, 716
Lille, capture of, 564
Lincoln, Abraham, 751
Lindisfarne, 48, 49
Lindsay, Earl of, 480
Literature in the Tudor period, 407-416 ; in
the Stuart period, 578-592 ; since 1714,
787
Liverpool, Earl of, 722
Llewelyn, Prince, 193, 198
Lochleven Castle, 372
Locomotive engines, early, 778
Lollards, 225, 230, 231, 233, 234
Londinium, 16
London, city of, 56, 137, 158, 171, 490
Londonderry, 452, 499, 546, 548
Long Parliament, 485 ; end of, 509, 513
Long-bow and cross-bow, 212
Long-ships of the Danes, 55, 60
" Lords Appellant," the, 221
Lords, House of, 179, 252, 497, 506, 509, 512,
Louis IX., 210
Louis XIV. of France, 607
Louis XVI. ,680
Lovelace, Richard, 587
Lowe, Sir Hudson, 718
Lowlanders, 196
Lucknow, siege of, 746
Ludford, battle of, 251
Lundy, Governor of Derry, 548
Luther, 309-312, 316, 333
Macaulay, Lord, 802
Macaulay, Zachary, 770
Macdonald, flora, 637
Macdonalds, the, and Culloden, 636
Magellan, 401
Magna Charta, 152, 155, 161, 163-173, 175,
461, 464
Mahdi, the, 757
Mahomed, 148
Main Plot, the, 438
Malcolm, King of Scotland, 125
Malplaquet, battle of, 564
Mansfield, Lord, and slavery, 769
March, kingdom of the, 46
Marengo, battle of, 690
Margaret of Anjou, 243, 245, 246, 250, 251, 252
Margaret, sister of Edward IV., 255, 274, 275
Margaret, the " Fair Maid of Norway,"' 198, 202
Margaret Tudor and the Stuarts, 431
Maria Theresa, 629
Marie Antoinette, 680
Marie Louise, 709
Marines, Royal, 324
Marlborough, Duchess of, 552, 560, 566
Marlborough, Duke of, 534, 540, 552, 556, 560-
568, 606
" Marseillaise," the, 681
Marshall, William, 161
Marston Moor, battle of, 487
Martyrs, the Oxford, 348 ; memorial, 349
Martinique, English victory off, 670 •
Mary, daughter of Charles I. , 502
Mary, daughter of James II., 540 ; proclaimed,
541
Mary, Henry VIII. 's daughter, 303, 324, 327,
329, 337 ; Queen, 339, 343 ; marries Philip,
346, 348 ; persecutions of, 348-353, and
the loss of Calais, 354 ; death, 356 ; com-
pared with Elizabeth, 359-361
Mary, Queen, and Princess Anne, 552 ', dies,
554 ; portrait, 555
Mary, Queen of Scots, 322, 323 ; and Edward
VI., 328 ; betrothed to the Dauphin, 329 ,
claim to the English throne, 332, 338, 363 ;
in Scotland, 369 ; and Knox, 370 ; Darnley
and Rizzio, 371 ; marries Both well, 372 -
a prisoner, 372; in England. 374; in the
hands of Elizabeth, 374-376
Mary Tudor (sister of Henry VIII.), 298 331
Masham, Mrs., 566
Massinger, 415, 416
Matilda, daughter of Henry I., 126, 127, 128.
130, 131
Matilda, wife of Henry L, 125
Maurice, nephew of Charles I., 480, 482
" Mayflower," the, 440
Mazarin, Cardinal, 511
Medeshamsted, Abbey of, 100
Medina Sidonia, Duke of, 386, 390, 391
Medway, the, 27, 29
Melbourne, Lord, 724 ; premier, 726, 734
Members of Parliament, 182
Merchant Taylors, 426
Merton, Robert of, 143
Methodists, 656
Mexico, 401
Middlesex, 38
" Milan Decree," 705, 712
Milton, John, 498, 578-582
Minden, 654
Minorca, 568, 641
Mistletoe, 12
Mogul empire, 646
Mohammedans, 286
Monasteries, 73, 318
Monday, 36
Monk, General, 501, 502, 505, 506, 515, 518
Monmouth, Henry of, 229, 230
Monmouth, Duke of, 528, 529, 533-535
" Monopolies," revenue from selling, 421
Montcalm, 652, 653
Monteagle, Lord, 442
Montford, Simon de, Earl of Leicester, 179,
180, 182, 184, 185
Montrose, Earl of, 489, 500
Moore, Sir John, 707, 708
Moore, Thomas, 802
8l2
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Moors, expulsion of, from Spain, 286
Morcar, Earl of Northumberland, no
More, Sir Thomas, 314, 316, 317; " Utopia,"
414 ; and Wolsey, 420
Mortimer, Edmund, 226, 228
Moriimer, Roger, 228
Morton, Cardinal, 281
Morville, Hugh de, 142-145
Moscow, 711, 713
Mountjoy, Lord, in Ireland, 394
Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, 247
Mowbray, Sir Philip, 205
Murray, Protestant leader in Scotland, 374
Mutiny at Spithead, 687, 690
Namur, capture of, 554
Nana Sahib, 745
Napoleon III., 738 ; Orsini's plot against, 748
Naseby, battle of, 489
National Convention, the, 681
National debt, and the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle,
638
National Gallery, 417, 419
Navarinp, battle of, 722
Navigation Act, the, 503-506
Navy, 63, 523 ; British, 683
Naze, naval action off, 505
Nectansmere, battle of, 51
Nelson, 683 ; at Cape St. Vincent, 686 ; at
Aboukir Bay, 688 ; portrait, 690 ; in the
Baltic, 691 ; and Trafalgar, 695-698
Nennius, 101
Netherlands, the, 277, 309, 377
Nevilles, the, 247
" New England States," the, 441, 643
New Forest, the, 120, 122
" New Learning," the, 313
"New Model," the, 489
"New Religion," the, 33}, 337
New style of reckoning time, 427, 428
Newbury, battle of, 484
Newcastle, Duke of, premier, 640
Newfoundland, 400, 403, 568, 671
Newspapers, beginning of, 594
Newton, Sir Isaac, 594-596
Newtown Butler, battle of, 548
Nonconformists, 522
Norfolk, 38, 49
Norfolk, Duke of, 222 (see Nottingham, Earl of)
Norman Conquest, 2 ; architecture, 68 ;
conquerors, 107 ; arms, 108 ; French, 108 ;
barons, 109, 112 ; soldiers, no
Normandy, 68. 82, 84, 91, 119, 236, 243
Normans at Chatham, 30; at Hastings, 31 ; at
court, 86 ; in Scotland, 197
North Cape, 401
"North Folk," 38
North, Lord, 665, 666
North Pole, 401
North-West Passage, 401
Northampton, battle of, 251
Northburgh, 100
Northmen, the, 54, 55 ; their language, 67 ;
222, 228, 229
Norwich burnt by Sweyn, 80
Nottingham, Earl of, 221
Nottingham, Lady, and Elizabeth, 395
Nunneries, 73 ; broken up, 318
" Oak-apple Day," 501
Oastler, Mr., 773
Gates, Titus, 528
O'Brien, Smith, 736
Ockley, battle of, 56
O'Connell, Daniel, 775
O'Connor, Feargus, 732, 736
Odiham Castle. 185
Offa, King of Mercia, 51, 52
''Offa's Dyke," 51
Oldcastle, Sir John, a Lollard, 233
Old style of reckoning time, 427, 428
O'Neil, Earl of Tyrone, 394
Orange, Prince of, 502, 527
Orleans, 240, 242
Ormond, Duke of, 567, 607
Ormond, Marquis of, 499
Orsini's plot, 748
Oudenarde, battle of, 564
" Overlord" of all England, 53, 66
Oxford, Earl of, and Henry VII., 279
Oxford, Earl of (see Walpole, Robert)
Oxford, Harley, Earl of, 566, 567, 568
Palatinate, the, 447
Palestine invaded by the Turks, 148 ; Richard
landing in Palestine, 151
Palmerston, 724, 725, and Orsini, 748 ; dies,
754,
Paraphrase, the, 102
Paris, England loses, 243
Parishes, 99
Parker, Sir Hyde, 693
Parliament, 99 ; and the law, 171 ; first, 179,
180, 182, 183; jurisdiction of, 200; sum-
moned by Bolingbroke, etc., 221 ; declares
for Bolingbroke, 222, 226, 228; religious
persecution, 231 ; votes money for war
with France, 234 ; Houses of, decorated
with the rose, 248, 249 ; and the Sovereign,
253 ; and Henry VII., 271 ; and the army,
283 ; head of the, 308 ; sides with Henry
VIII. against the Pope, 316, 321 ;
obsequiousness of, 348, 360, 363 ; and
Elizabeth's marriage, 366 ; in Tudor times,
419-422, 435 ; under the Stuarts, 432, 435 ;
and James I., 439 ; Charles I.'s third, 465 ;
fourth, 473 ; fifth, 474 ; five members
arrested, 477 ; and Charles I. at war, 478 ;
purchase Charles I , 490 ; Dutch hostility
to, 501 ; and William and Mary, 545
Parliament of 'Ireland, 422
Parliament of Scotland and Darnley's murder,
372, 451 ; and Charles I , 491
Parliamentary army, 483 ; victorious, 491
Parliamentary union with Ireland, 677
Parliaments, English and Scottish, 570, 571
Parr, Catharine, 292, 321
Party government, 575
Paston letters, the, 247
" Pasture-land," 97
Patagonia, 401
Paterson and the Isthmus of Darien, 571
Paul of Russia, 690, 693
Paulines, 315
Paulinus, 45, 46
Pavement, Roman, 19
INDEX,
813
Peel, Sir Robert, 723 ; premier, 726 ; and the
Corn-laws, 734-73°"
Peers legal judgment of, 169
Pelham, Henry, premier, 638
Penda, King, 46, 49, 50, 51
Peninsular War, 707
Pennington, Admiral, 459
People's Council, 97
Pepys, Samuel, 586
Percies, the, 228, 247.
Percy, Henry," 222, 228, 229
"Perpendicular" window, 423, 424
Persecution, futility of, 344, 348-353
Peter the Hermit, 149
Peterborough Cathedral, 100
Petition of Right, 465, 471, 532, 574
Pevensey, Normans land at, 93
Philip and Mary, 346-353 ; Philip seeks the
hand of Elizabeth, 366, 379, 381 ; fits out
the Armada, 382 ; and its loss, 392
Phillip, Captain, 760
" Picts," the, 22, 197
Pilgrim Fathers, the, 440
Pilgrimage of Grace, 319
Pinkie's Cleugh, battle of, 328
Pitt, Lord Chatham, 623, 630 ; minister, 637,
638, 640 ; British successes under, 642-
655 ; resigns, 661 ; and the Stamp Act,
664 ; dies, 667
Pitt, William, the younger, 672 ; premier, 673 ;
portrait, 674 ; and the French Revolution,
682 ; and the Napoleonic wars, 692 ; death,
700
Pittsburg, 650
Pizarro, Francis, 401
Plague in London, 524
Planta Genista, 125, 127
Plantagenet, 127
Plantagenets, last of the, 260, 262, 268
Plantation of Ulster, 452
Plassey, battle of, 648
" Pointed" window, 423, 424
Poitiers, battle of, 215
Pole, Michael de la, 220
Poll tax, 218
Pontefract Castle, 223
Pope, the, 137 ; and Luther, 309 ; power of the,
315; claims, 334; and the Armada, 383,
591-593
Population in the Stuart Period, 599
Port Reeve of City of London, 137
Portland Bill, naval engagement off, 506
Portland, Duke of, premier, 672, 701
Post office, 782
Poyning's Act, 422, 675
Prayer-Book, the, 330, 409, 584
Prerogative, the royal, 444
Presbyterians, 437 ; in Parliament, 487, 490, 491
Press, freedom of the, 781
Preston, battle of, 610
Prestonpans, battle of, 634
" Pretender, the Old," 554, 556, 558, 560, 564,
568, 569, 607, 608, 609, 611, 631
" Pretender, the Young," 631-637
Prices in the Stuart Period, 599
Pride, Colonel, 401
" Pride's Purge, ' 491
Printing, art of, 254-257 ; and the fall of
Constantinople, 258
Protestant Reformation, 309, 333; schools,
330 ; succession, 569 (see Succession, Act of)
Protestants, 310, 333-336, 337-334. 443
Provence, Eleanor of, 179
Prowse, Captain, 391
Pudding-lane, 525
Puritans, 365, 370, 436, 440, 457, 469
Pym, 477
,-uadruple Alliance, 1718, 614
Quakers, 770
Juatre-Bras, battle of, 716
Quebec, 652, 654, 662
Queen's Bench, court of, 165, 166
^uiberon Bay, battle of, 654
Railway, the first, 724, 778.
Railway servants' hours, 773
Raleigh, Walter, 387, 394, 396, 402, 406, 438.
447, 448
Ramillies, battle of, 564, 565
Rathmines, battle of, 499
Ravenspur, 222
Recalde, Admiral, 386
Redan, the, 742
Reform Bill, 724, 754
Reformation in Scotland, 370
Reformation, Protestant, 309, 333
Reformation, the, 514
Reformers, 310, 333, 334
Regent, time of Henry VI., 239
" Regicide," the, 518
Republic, England a, 498
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 791
Rheims, 239, 2^0
Richard I., 148; landing in Palestine, 150; in
prison, 152; death, 153
Richard II., 217,218; and WatTyler'srebellion,
219; and John of Gaunt, 220; in Ireland,
222 ; death, 223, 228
Richard III. (** Gloucester, Richard, Duke of),
260; at Bosworth Field, 262, 263
Richard, " the Good," Duke of Normandy, 82
Richard, Duke of York, 246; quarrel wi h
Beaufort, 249; slain, 251
Richard, son of Edward IV., 253; murdered,
260, 264, 270
Richardson, novelist, 789
Richelieu, 459
Richmond, Henry of, 261 ; becomes king, 262
(see Henry VII.)
Ridley, Bishop of London, 348, 349, 350
Riot Act, 606
Rivers, Earl, executed, 252
Rizzio, David, 371
Roads, Roman, 20-22
Robert of Normandy, in
Robert, son of William I., 118, 124; defeated
by Henry I., 125
Rochelle, siege of, 459, 466.
Rochester, 19, 28
Rochester, Earl of, 532, 556
Rockingham, Lord, 672
Rodney, Admiral, 661
Rolf the Ganger, 67 ; Duke of Normandy, 68
Roman Catholics and Protestants, 311, 313, 334-
344; danger of, in England, 383, 456;
sufferings, 443 ; and Grattan's Parliament,
675
8i4
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Roman Conquest, 2 ; empire, 3, 5 ; soldiers, 7 ;
camps, roads, and walls, 17-22 ; Christian-
ity, 23 ; camp at Chatham, ?8 ; invasion
compared with the Saxon, 32
Romney, George, 791
Romsey Abbey, 71, 72
Rooke, Admiral, 553, 565
Rosebery, Lord, Prime Minister, 757
Roses, wars of the, 247-252
Rouen, 6&> 91, 136
Roundheads, 457, 482, 488
" Royal Family," 98
Royalists, 482, 499
Rugby School, 426
"Rump," the, 491, 497, 509, 513, 514
Runnymede, 160, 161
Rupert, Prince, 480, 481, 482, 485, 487
Russell, Earl, 529
Russell, Lord, 554
Russell, Lord John, 724 ; premier, 736, 754
Ruyter, De, 505, 523, 525
Rye-house plot, 529, 532
Ryswick, peace of, 554
Sacheverell, Dr., 566
Salamanca, battle of, 711
Salic law, 128
Salisbury, Earl of, 247
Salisbury, Lord, Prime Minister, 757
Salisbury, Marquess of, 362
Salisbury Plain, n, 21
Sanctuary, 138
" Sassenachs," 35
Saturday, 36
Saxons, coming of the, 25 ; country of the, 26 ;
invasion of the, 32 ; difference from the
Roman, 32-35 ; at Chatham, 30 ; receive
Christianity from Ireland, 35 ; gods of
the, 36; split into tribes, 38; how they
became Christians, 40 ; threatened by the
Danes, 53 ; in Scotland, 197
Saxony, 35
School boards established, 755
Scinde, conquest of, 743
Scone, 200
Scotland, the making of, 190, 194, 202; Edward
I. in, 200, 210, 2ii ; and France, 211 ; time
of Henry VIII., 322; time of Mary, 370;
helps Charles I., 477 ; Cromwell invades,
500; English church in, 552 ; union with,
570-573, 577
Scots, 197 ; and Mortimer s claim to the crown,
228, 229 ; and the Church of England, 472 ;
give up Charles I., 490
Scott, Sir Walter, 151, 200 ; and Flodden, 296,
Scrope, Lady. 395
Sea rovers, the, 26
Sea fighting, 324
Sebastopol, 740
Sedgemoor, battle of, 534
Self-denying ordinance, the, 488
Sens, William of, 133, 141 (note)
Septennial Act, 612
Serfs, 168
Seven Bishops, the, 539
Seven Years' War ends, 661
Seymour, Jane, 292, 317, 320
Seymour, Lord Henry, 391
Seymour, Thomas, Admiral of England, 329
Seymours, the, 327
Shaftesbury, Earl of, 772
Shakespeare, 410-413, 579
"Shannon," the, 712
" Shares," 99
Shrewsbury, 109, 192 ; battle of, 229 ; Duke of,
569
Shrewsbury School, 426
Shropshire, 51
Shelburne, Lord, 672
Shelley, 797
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 794
Sheriff, High, 166
Sheriffmuir, battle at, 610
Sheriffs and new parliament, 182
Ship-money, 470, 476
Shire council, court moot, 99 ; knights of the,
m 182.
Shires, 99
Sidmouth, Viscount (see Addington)
Sidney, Algernon, 529
Sikh wars, 743
Simnel, Lambert, 271-274
Simon, Richard, and Lambert Simnel, 272
Simony, 317
Slammock. Thomas, and Warbeck, 276
Slave trade abolition, 725, 768
Slaves, 168
Sluys, naval action off, 215
Smith, Sir Sidney, and the siege of Acre, 690
Smollett, novelist, 789
Society, Royal, 595
Soldiers, 324 ; pay, 599
Somers, Lord, 554, 555
Somerset, Lord, Protector, 327-331
Somerset, the negro, 769
Sophia, Electress, 560, 571
South Sea bubble, 616-621
" South folk," 38
Southey, 800
Spain, enmity of, 379-393 ; war with, 511 ;
feeling against, 628
Spanish Main, 380
Speaker, 467, 468, 508
Spenser, Edmund, 414
Spurs, battle of the, 295
St. Aidan, 46-49
St. Albans, battle of, 250, 251
St. Albans Cathedral, 23
St. Alphcge, 80-82
St. Augustine, 42-44
St. Bartholomew's Church, Smithfield, 219
St. Bartholomew, massacre of, 378
St. Brice's Day massacre, 80
St. Crispin's Day, 235
St. Cuthbert, 46, 49
St. Dunstan's Church, 74, 75
St. Helena, 23
St. Helena, Napoleon at, 718
St. Paul, Monastery of, Jarrow, 103
St. Paul's Cathedral, 597
St. Paul's School, 315, 426
St. Peter at Wearmouth, Monastery of, 103
St. Peter's Church, Westminster, 88
St. Swithin, 58
St. Vincent, 683, 698
St. Vincent, Cape, Spanish defeat off, 687
INDEX.
815
Stamford Bridge, battle of, 93
Stamp Act 663
Stanhope, General, 606
bianley, Lord, at Bosworth Field, 262
Star Chamber, 282, 471, 472, 476
Steamboat, history of the, 777
Steele, Sir Richard, 589, 590
Steinkirk, battle of, 553
Stephen, 118, 128, 130, 131, 135
Stephenson's, George, " Rocket,
portrait, 780
Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury, 108
Stirling Castle, 205
Stoke, battle at, 274
Stoke Mandeyille, 471
Stone of Destiny, 199, 200
Stonehenge, 10, n, 12
Strafford, Earl of, 473 ; impeached, 476 (see
Wentworth, Sir Thomas)
Straw, Jack, 219
Strode, 477
Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, 146
Stuart, Arabella, 441
Stuart, Charles Edward, 631-637
Stuart Period. 430 ; constitutional history of,
573-577 ; literature in, 578-592
Stuarts, last of the, 570
" Succession, Act of," 556, 558, 603
Succession to the throne, rule of, in England,
128, 154
Suetonius defeats Boadicea, 17
Suffolk, 38, 49
Suffolk, Earl of, 220, 221
Sunday, origin of name, 36
Supremacy, Act of, 364
Surrey, Earl of, at Flodden, 296
Sussex, 38, 52
Sweyn, 79, 80, 82
Sweyn, son of Canute, 85
Sweyn, Godwin's son, 86, 87
Swift, Jonathan, 590
Tacitus, 9, 96
TaHvera, battle of, 709
Taliesin, chief of the bards, 102
Tamworth, 262
Taunton, Perkin Warbeck defeated at, 277
Tea taxes in America, 665
Telegraph, 782
Tel-el-kebir, 757
Temple, the, 249
Tenant, 116
Tenchebrai, 125
Ten Hours Bill, 773
Tennyson, 802
Terouenne, 295
Test Act, the, 527, 536. 538 x
Tests, abolition of, 776
Tewkesbury, battle of, 252
Thackeray, 802
Thames, the, 16
Thanet, Isle of. Saxons settle in, 27 ; map of, 42
Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, 138
Thirty Years' War, the, 447
Thomas A'Becket, 136 (see A'Becket)
Thor, 36, 40
"Thorough," Strafford's motto, 474
Thursday, origin of name, 36
Tilsit, treaty of, 702, 711
Tin, traders in, 5
Tintern Abbey, 72
Titus, 22
Tone, Wolfe, 676
Tories, 533, 544, 551, 555, 556, 559, 566, 568,
604
Torres Vedras, lines of, 710
Tostig, Godwin's son, 86, 87, 92, 93
Toulouse, battle of, 711
Tours, 127
Tourville, Admiral, 551, 553
" Town militia," 480
Townshend, 606
Towton, battle of, 251
Tracy, William de, 142-145
Trafalgar, battle of, 698
" Train-bands," 480
Transvaal rebellion, 756
Treason, high, 364, 419
" Trent, the," affair of, 751
Tresham, Sir Thomas, 442
Triennial Act, 612
Triennial parliaments, 476, 554
Triple Alliance (1717), 614
Troy, history of, 255
Tudor emblem, a, 262
Tudor, Owen, 245, 261, 269
Tudor sovereigns, the, 269 ; Period, 270
Tudors, the, 247, 261, 264, 269, 396
Tuesco, 36
Tuesday, origin of name, 36
Tunnage and Poundage, 458, 463, 466, 520
Turks invade Palestine, 148 ; take Constanti-
nople, 258
Turnpikes, 778
Twelfth-night, 418
Tyler, Wat, 217
Tyndall, William, 408
Tyrconnel, Earl of, 537, 546
Uffington, battle near, 62
Ulster, province of, 452
" Under-kings," 75
Under-vassals, 117
Uniformity, Act of. 364 ; (1662), 522, 527
"Union, Act of," Ireland, 677
" Union Jack," 324
Union of England and Scotland, 284, 451 ;
Act of, 570-573, 577
United Empire Loyalists,' 671, 712
United States, 668 ; first president of, 670 ; war
with, 712 ; civil war in, 750
Universities, the, and Henry VIII., 307
" Unready, ^Ethelred the," 79
Utrecht, treaty of, 565, 568
Valentine. M.P., 468
Vale of White Horse, 62
Van Tromp, 505, 506
Vasco da Gama, 400
Vassal, the, 116
Vespasian. 22
Victoria, Queen, ancestors of, 446, 730 ; her
first council, 733 ; sovereign of India, 748 ;
Jubilees, 758 ; death, 758
Vienna Congress, 711
Village council, 99
8i6
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Villain, 163
Villiers, Charles, 732
Villiers, George, 445, 446 (see Buckingham,
Duke of)
Vimiera, battle of, 708
Vincennes, castle of, 237
Virginia, 402
Vittoria, battle of, 711
Volunteer movement, 750
Wages in the Stuart Period, 599
Wagram battle of, 709
Wakefield, battle of, 251
Walcheren expedition. 709
Wales, 34; Christianity in, 35; north and
west, 30, 51 ; the breaking of, 190-194,
202 ; Prince of, 194
Walker, Rev. George, and the siege of Derry,
548
Wallace, William, 200, 202, 203
Waller, Edmund, 588
Wallingford, treaty of, 131
" Wall of Severus," 22
Walls, Roman, 22
Walpole, Horace, 654
Walpole, Sir Robert, 606 ; and the National
debt, 618 ; premier, 621-630
Waltham Abbey, 94
Walworth, Sir William, and Wat Tyler, 219
Wantsum, the, 42
Warbeck, Perkin, 275-277
Warwick, Earl of, at Crecy, 213, 221, 247, 251,
252 ; beheaded, 277
Washington, George, 644, 650, 662, 668-670
Waterford, 146
Waterloo, battle of, 176, 716, 719
" Watling Street," the, 22
Wedmore, peace of, 62
Wednesday, origin of name, 36
Wellington, Duke of, 701 ; in India, 704 ; in
the Peninsula, 707 ; at Waterloo, 716, 717;
premier, 723 ; consents to reform, 725 ; and
the Chartists, 737 ; death, 738 ; memorial
in St. Paul's, 739
Welsh, the, OfFa's battles with, 51, 53 ; join the
Danes, 69 ; and music, 193 ; and Mortimer's
claim to the crown, 228, 229
Wentworth, Peter, member of parliament, 420
Wentworth, Sir Thomas, 465, 470, 471 (see
Strafford, Earl of)
Wesley, Charles, 656
Wesley, John, 655
" Wesleyan Methodists," 656
Wesleyans, 655
Wessex, 39, 52
Westminster Abbey, 72, 88, 89 ; rebuilt, 177,
230
Westminster Hall, 120-123, ^5
Westminster School, 426
Westmoreland, Earl of, at Agincourt, 235
Wexford, storming of, 499
Wight, Isle of, 229
Wiglaf, 51, 52
Wiiberforce, William, 770
William I., 92; compact with Harold, 92;
lands, 93 ; defeats Harold, 94 ; and Here-
ward, in ; master of England, 112; and
his barons, 113 ; death, 114 ; his sons, n8
William II., Rufus, 118; place where killed,
119, 122
William III., 543; and Ireland, 550; plots
against, 554 ; dies, 556
William IV., 723 ; portrait, 724
William of Orange invited to England, 540 ;
proclaimed, 541
William of Sens, 133
William of Valence, Earl of Pembroke, 185
William, son of Henry I., 126
William, the Lion, Scottish king, a prisoner,
146
" Wiltsaetas," 38
Winchester School, 426
Witanagemot, the, 90. 99
Witchcraft, laws against, 175
Witt, De, Dutch admiral, 523
Wharton, Lord, 554
Wheble, 170
Whigs, 544, 550, 554, 555, 556, 559, 566, 568,
604
Whitby, Abbey of, 73
Whitby, Caedmon of, 102
Whitefield, George, 656
"White Ship," the, 126
Whitworth, Lord, insulted by Napoleon, 694
Woden, 36, 40
Wolfe, General, 644, 650, 652
Wolsey, Cardinal, 299-305 ; and parliament,
420
Woodville, Elizabeth, marriage with Edward
IV., 252
Worcester, battle of, 500, 501, 513
Wordsworth, 800
Wren, Sir Christopher, 594, 596-598
Wulf here, King of Mercia, 50
Wyatt, Sir Thomas, 342, 345, 347
Wycherley, William, 588
Wycliffe, John, 224, 230, 233, 408
Wykeham, William of, 426
Xavier, 401
Year, length of the, 427
Yeomen of the Guard, 282
" York and Lancaster Rose," 265
York, Duke of, Edmund, 217
York, House of, 246 ; crushed, 264
Yorktown, surrender of, 670
Young, Captain, 391
Young Chevalier, the, 631-637
" Young Ireland " party, 736
Zulu war, 756
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